Integrated Amp Reviews

Sidebar 1: Review System

The Exposure XV saw time driving three pairs of loudspeakers in my listening room: the Paradigm Compact Monitor, Rogers LS2a/2, and the usual Hales System Two Signatures. Loudspeaker cable was a 20' bi-wired pair of Exposure cables terminated with banana plugs on both ends. Source components included a heavily modified Well-Tempered Turntable fitted with an AudioQuest AQ7000 cartridge, connected via Expressive Technologies IC-2 or AudioQuest Diamond. The digital front end included a Theta Data, Museatex CD-Deck, and Proceed PDT 3 transports driving a Mark Levinson No.30 or Meitner IDAT digital processor. In accordance with Exposure's request, the XV was not plugged into the Tice Power Block and Titan.

Reference components on hand that established a benchmark level of performance included the Audio Research LS2B preamp, VTL 225W Deluxe monoblock tubed power amplifiers, and a Mark Levinson No.23.5 solid-state power amplifier. The reference phono stage was a Vendetta SCP2B. Reference loudspeaker cables were bi-wired runs of AudioQuest Sterling/Midnight (8') or AudioQuest Dragon/Clear (3'). Taken together, the ancillary components cost more than ten times the XV's price.—Robert Harley