Excerpted from *Audio Technology*

British brand Exposure has always been dedicated to creating a variety of high-quality, affordable audio equipment for music lovers. Their engineering team, comprised entirely of music enthusiasts, utilizes extensive scientific knowledge, skilled techniques, and keen hearing to design, manufacture, and tune equipment that delivers delicate highs, open mids, deep and flexible lows, and a balanced, coherent, and accurate overall sound. This allows listeners to deeply immerse themselves in the music, without solely focusing on HiFi effects. Recently, Exposure launched a new model in its high-performance 3510 series: the Exposure 3510 CD player. This player utilizes the electronic circuitry of the 3010S2 CD player and the top-sliding disc eject mechanism of the XM CD player.

This unit, which the manufacturer calls a “masterpiece” product in the 3510 series, is specifically built for CD playback, offering a precise and dynamic experience at a competitive price. The Exposure 3510 CD player lacks computer audio or other additional digital source inputs. Besides a remote control, it only features basic BNC and optical digital outputs, and a pair of RCA analog output jacks. Its core decoding component—the Burr Brown PCM1704 DAC—while dating back to a classic 1998 product, remains a high-resolution and well-separated dual independent digital-to-analog converter chip. It boasts a 120dB signal-to-noise ratio, accepts 20-bit and 24-bit input information, has a sampling frequency of 96kHz, and supports up to eight times the sampling frequency. The audio circuitry is also highly optimized; for example, the CD turntable operation and audio processing are handled independently by a large toroidal transformer. Furthermore, it utilizes a high-stability crystal clock and a high-quality double-sided printed circuit board for optimal internal layout. The entire casing of the Exposure 3510 CD player is made of aluminum to minimize vibration, giving it an industrial look.

Listening Test: This is an early version of Tsai Chin’s “Opportunity,” a must-have for audiophiles like us. The vocals and electronic piano accompaniment have slightly high levels. Listening to the first part of the CD’s theme song “Opportunity” at a normal volume setting (around 11:30), the sound quality often emphasizes Hi-Fi effects. In other words, the vocals are forward, the mouth movements are slightly exaggerated, and the electronic piano accompaniment has a slightly artificial “flavoring” quality. After two nights of burn-in with my Exposure 3510 CD player, the sound quality remained stable, with a clear yet rich sound signature. Playing the “Opportunity” section at 11:30 volume clearly shows the slightly high level. Lowering the volume to 11:15, the balance between the vocals and electronic piano accompaniment, as well as the quality of Tsai Chin’s mouth movements and the electronic piano, all sounded normal. Tsai Chin’s vocals, with their deep throat foundation, energy, and thickness, are all top-notch female vocals. Listening to the song again a week later, the richness and subtle penetrating power of the vocals reached a level of sophistication I could only appreciate with separate CD players and decoders costing several times more. To use an analogy: the former (after two days of burn-in) is like a fine brandy, while the latter (after a week of burn-in) is like XO cognac! Of course, when listening to “Moonlight Serenade,” besides Qin Jie’s unparalleled magnetic voice and beautiful melody, counting the nine frogs of varying sizes is a must. The space filled with the chirping of cicadas further demonstrates the Exposure 3510 CD player’s ability to create a stereo soundstage, comparable to more expensive separate CD players/decoders. …