Exposure

3510 CD Player

USD $3,000

This CD player is one of the most 'exotic' products I have come across in a while because, in engineering terms, it is something of a time-warp design. Imagine if Porsche started to manufacture its iconic 911 sports car exactly as it rolled off the production line back in 2005. That would mean no PDK box, rear-wheel steering, Apple CarPlay, or any other such fancy stuff – just a pure, stripped-down design using twenty-year-old tech. That is effectively what the new Exposure 3510 CD is, in hi-fi terms.

So you can forget the latest 'flavour of the month' 32-bit, 768kHz-capable DAC chips, fancy displays and digital inputs conferring DAC functionality – and no, it doesn't have a built-in streamer either. There is a bundled remote, but nothing resembling app control. You don't even get a motorised CD drawer tray that comes out to greet you when you press an 'open' button. Instead, this is a no-nonsense, unreconstructed, old-school CD spinner running a Sony KSS-213C transport and Burr-Brown PCM1704 multibit DACs.

If memory serves, I remember Arcam CD players from the mid-two thousands running those CD transports – whereas the Burr-Brown DAC is of an even older vintage. I have an old press release, dating back to 1998, boasting of it being "an ultra high quality digital/analogue converter chip with bragging rights to a 120dB signal-to-noise ratio, which will accept input data words of 20- and 24-bit lengths at sampling frequencies up to 96kHz, and will support 8x oversampling at the highest sampling rate." Back when it was released, I was roughly half the age I am now!

Why would Exposure release such a thing? Head honcho Tony Brady tells me in a self-effacing tone, "Some of our customers asked us to make CD players again as other manufacturers had stopped. We used the Sony transport and Burr-Brown DAC because we've used them before and know them very well." As for its top-loading design – which is rarely seen these days and harks back to the original, first-generation Philips CD100 of 1982 – he says he likes "the tactile feel of inserting the disc, and it also sounds better without the mechanism being part of a loader."

As fans of the Exposure brand will tell you, right from the company's inception in 1974, it has been famous for punchy, smooth-sounding power amps with carefully designed power supplies. The 3510 CD duly gets the same treatment. While its transport and DACs may be vintage 'off the shelf' products – almost all manufacturers buy in these components by the way, rather than develop their own – the discrete transistor analogue output stage and regulated power supplies are bespoke Exposure. He adds: "We have multiple stages of regulation as per usual with our products, as well as our custom-made power transformer."

The audio circuitry is said to be "highly optimised", with separate windings on the large toroidal transformer for the CD transport and audio stages. A high-stability crystal clock reference is used, as are high-quality double-sided printed circuit boards for optimum layout and screening. Aluminium casework is used throughout, to minimise vibration. The effect is a slightly 'industrial' looking machine, yet one that's undeniably well made. A choice of black or titanium finishes is offered, and a three-year guarantee comes as standard.

Measuring 90x440x300mm [HxWxD] and weighing 5kg, the 3510 CD is nothing out of the ordinary size or weight-wise. It's very simple to use, with the bare minimum of cleanly laid out fascia controls, and around the back is a pair of RCA line level outputs, plus a choice of electrical coaxial and optical TOSLINK digital outputs. The backlit, 'reverse video' display is vintage Sony, although here it gets a warm red filter and can be turned off for improved sound. Operationally this machine is nice enough to use – I personally love top loaders – and is quick in operation, too.

THE LISTENING

If you've ever heard an Exposure amplifier, then the sound of this CD player won't shock you. It's as if the company has bottled its 'secret sauce' and poured it all over this disc spinner. So that means it is tonally slightly on the warm side, compared to some rivals, with a subtly rich bass and an upper midband that won't strip the paper off your walls. Nor does the treble sear at you. So it's middle-of-the-road and bland, then? Err, no, because alongside the 3510 CD's consummate smoothness is a genuine love of rhythm and dynamics. It has, for the want of a better expression, real get-up and go.

Cue up a classic rock album – and I strongly suspect many Exposure owners love this particular genre – and it really gets into the groove. Play Yours Is No Disgrace by Yes, a prog epic no less, and there's never a dull moment. This machine has a visceral, immediate nature that makes many modern rivals seem a little safe and non-comital. The 3510 CD has a lot of fun with this track – both in terms of rendering it with the aforementioned warm tonal 'patina', and in the way it grabs onto the song's shuffling rhythms like a limpet.

This is a bright-sounding recording – a typically flat and dry early seventies sound that can often grate without the warmth of vinyl to mask it – yet the Exposure serves it up in a flattering way. The bass guitar comes across as fulsome without being plummy, and on dynamic crescendos this player positively ramrods low frequencies out at you – especially at high volumes. The mix is very well articulated, with every strand allowed to do its own thing without being swamped by another.

The soundstage is excellent too. It's not the widest I've ever heard, but the 3510 CD still projects the recorded acoustic in an expansive and structured way. This makes light work of REM's Maps and Legends, which, via many modern CD spinners, can sound dull and dirge-like. This eighties indie rock track needs a serious source to reveal all the respective instruments and their positions inside the mix. The Exposure does precisely this, and the effect is quite mesmeric. It's also great at reproducing the delicate timbre of voices and instruments – Michael Stipe's earthy vocals and Peter Buck's raunchy Rickenbacker guitar are clear to hear.

Feed this machine with the excellent but over-compressed modern recording that is Dodgy's In A Room, and the 3510 CD absolutely thrives. It has the subtlety and insight to reach deep into the recording and let all the flavour flood out. This is an angst-ridden, mid-nineties Britpop song that pays homage to both The Byrds and The Who, with complex, undulating drum work, crashing guitar power chords and a plaintive, intimate lead vocal line. As the track was heavily 'normalised' (compressed up to 0dB levels) for FM radio back in the day – it's the subtle dynamic inflexions that give the song its poignancy. The Exposure brings these out brilliantly, making for a gripping, seat-of-the-pants listen.

Indeed, this CD spinner relishes every genre of music, from the quiet and brooding virtuoso classical piano work of Debussy's La Cathédrale Engloutie prelude to the floaty, butter-smooth contemporary urban soul of Michael Kiwanuka's The Rest of Me. Whatever you place upon its top-loading transport, it breezes along rhythmically and extracts dynamic nuances better than almost all its price rivals. The Exposure never comes over as brash or in-your-face. Instead, this is a very delicate performer that works its magic through intricate detail retrieval.

THE VERDICT

True to its tradition, Exposure has come up with a quirky product in the 3510 CD. It has next-to-no facilities, a transport and DAC package that wouldn't look out of place a generation ago, and an industrial finish that looks more at home in the pro audio world. Yet, in sonic terms, it's an absolute belter that loves music and just wants to have fun. Unlike many state-of-the-art digital designs, it has attitude yet at the same time is never harsh or uncouth – which is a clever trick to pull off. Catch it if you can, then.

Visit Exposure for more information