eXemplar audio eXception Headphone Amplifier

Anyone heard of eXemplar audio?

$2995 headphone amp. Not a very exciting looking amp, but how it sounds it what matters, right?

http://www.exemplaraudio.com/Products/headphone-amp.html



Features

• Very short all triode signal path with no negative feedback
• Voltage amp cap coupled to an actively loaded differential output stage (high dynamic range, wide bandwidth with fast transients and amazing recovery of low level detail, transformer output)
• Urushi output capacitors (simply the best signal capacitors we’ve been able to find!)
• Custom mu-metal shielded power transformers with power supply PCB mounted directly to transformer (minimizes stray fields and noise pick up)
• Very high performance, ultrafast, wide bandwidth shunt regulators per channel (very low impedance power to tube stages over an extremely wide bandwidth providing extremely low noise and black background)
• DC regulated filaments
• ALPS audiophile-grade VOLUME pot
• Warm-up delay function (when powered up the power supplies are sequenced in stages to maximize tube life and provide quiet startup)
• Heavy gauge steel enclosure to help isolate external electronic noise from nearby equipment
• Each unit is proudly hand built in the USA!

 

Urushi output capacitors? Do they have the ratings and polarity marked in Maki-e as well?

 

Am I the only one who thinks their logo looks uncannily similar to Cavalli’s yin yang logo?

 

I think there are the boutique capacitors.

http://www.theaudiofeast.com/UrushiCapacitors.html

 

That's John Tucker,I heard one of his modded heaphone amp years back at a Hf meet that a member had.I tought it sounded pretty good.So he has been around awhile modding & building stuff.

 

Now that you mention it I can't un-see it...

So are they just polypropylene with an urushi finish?

 

I really don't care about the Urushi Capacitors as much as how the amp sounds. Also, the logo. All yin yang logos look similar to me. Exemplar has been in business since 2001, so unlikely they copied the logo. My guess is that style was just popular then.

Exemplar has full line of audio gear (amps, speakers, overpriced interconnects, pre-amps, and stuff. From their about page, this is, indeed, John Tucker. he's an ex NASA guy (who probably think audio ain't rocket science )

Well, Exemplar sells $1400 and $1800 power cords (no Urushi finish). I always wonder about companies that sell that kind of stuff.

Tucker probably knows his craft pretty well, but I wonder if it's just a basic headphone design with boutique parts.

 

The only tubes it mentions using are 6H6Ps and the other thing mentioned about the topology is "actively loaded differential output stage".

I guess that makes it a balanced Valhalla 2 with a 6H6P gain stage instead of the 6DJ8, E88CC, 6922 family?

 

Looks like they might be in Lake Stevens, WA. Anyone near there willing to take a field trip to their "factory" and check it out? Looks like they have other interesting stuff to check too.

 

No need to do that, just look at the address on Google Maps Street view... it's a 1970's era bi-level with a 2-car garage

----edited for piss-poor spelling----

 

My guess is that "factory" is his garage. Still, who cares if the amp sound great.

 

Dunno about maki-e but they really ought to go ishime-ji for added texture.

That aside, I've actually wondered at the use of more niche materials in high-end audio components. An old article from JapanTimes talks about use of urushi + gold trace, and I just found a patent for an urushi-coated film, which seems to have lower resistivity and high conductivity:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2010/11/19/arts/rethinking-traditional-urushi-lacquerware/
https://patents.google.com/patent/JPS5723664A/en

and the accompanying video for the JT article (which is AWESOME):

Nope, that's the first thing I thought of as well. Recent talk of the Monoprice stuff brought Cavalli back to the forefront, where I feel it deserves to be.

 

The pictures from The Audio Feast show some kind of texture with multiple parallel lines but it's not any technique I'm familiar with.

(From drooling over Nakayas and Danitrios at nibs.com...)