Unlike most CD players nowadays Exposure has eschewed slot loading or a flimsy slide-out tray. Instead, it’s a top loader – slide back the panel, place the CD on its hub then place the supplied puck on top before closing and you are ready to go.

Exposure believes this provides a more solid, stable platform for digital replay. Inside, the CD XM is built around a Burr Brown PCM 1716 24-bit DAC with multi-level delta-sigma modulator architecture and 8x oversampling digital filter.

Double-sided printed circuit boards are employed with special attention applied to minimising resonance and the influence of electromagnetic fields – a growing problem with the number of gadgets in households today. There’s also a large toroidal transformer with separate windings for the CD transport mechanism and audio stages.

On demonstration here at Cymbiosis.