“From recording to retail, Exposure Electronics quickly learned what it is that listeners required,” writes the magazine, in order to deliver “the full ‘hair-raising and spine-tingling’ potential of an original music recording ”.

Exposure Electronics was founded in 1974 in Hove, West Sussex, and started life as a hi-fi shop. But it wasn’t long before founder John Farlowe felt the itch to combine his experience of music recording and production with his new insights into what his retail customers really wanted, to create his first hi-fi component under the Exposure brand. In true Farlowe style, once he hit the ground, he hit it running – and launched four debut products 1977!

From the outset, Exposure was determined to focus on what they call ‘real world’ hi-fi – a term that can be summarised in six guiding principles: (1) to create hi-fi components that deliver exceptionally musical sound quality, and which are (2) skilfully crafted, (3) simply styled (“the complexity belongs on the inside”), (4) easy to use, (5) realistically priced and (6) built to last.

Farlowe’s early designs quickly earned a strong following and the Exposure range continued to grow and develop over the next couple of decades. As the range expanded, so did the company and its design and production team, with Tony Brady taking over the helm as chief designer following Farlowe’s retirement in 2000.

The magazine’s feature includes an interview with Brady, who summaries the Exposure ‘house sound’ as being “strong, with rhythmic bass and plenty of drive and control, giving a refreshingly clear midrange and lovely clean treble”.

Brady then shares a number of insights into the company’s present and future, including an interesting alternative to the common use of ‘trickle-down technology’. “Trickle-up technology,” explains Brady, has equally been a prominent feature in Exposure’s design process, inspired by “the need – and the desire – to be increasingly creative with our products at the more affordable and accessible end of the Exposure range. ‘Affordable’ should never mean ‘cheap’, nor should it ask the listener to compromise on any of the key parameters that are so vital to achieving that spine-tingling sound we all covet.”So, when you have less budget to play with, and / or less size (for example, with our XM series of half-size components), then you have to get into some fresh thinking,” he explains. “Some of our best ideas have emerged as a result, and they’ve since been applied to our products higher up the range.”

As for the future, Brady shares his views on where the UK hi-fi industry is heading, as well as giving a heads-up of two product launches still to come in 2025: the new flagship 5510 integrated amplifier and the new 3510 DAC. Watch this space!

Read the ‘Company Confidential’ feature in full in the November issue of Hi-Fi Choice.

Find out more about Exposure’s range of ‘real world hi-fi’, and find your nearest specialist retailer to arrange an audition, at https://exposurehifi.com