Exemplar Audio
Digital sourcesAmplifiersPreamplifiers & phono stages
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2001 |
| Founder | John Tucker |
Exemplar Audio is an American company run by the designer John Tucker, who began it as a full-time business in 2001. It became best known for modifying Denon universal disc players, such as the DVD-2900, DVD-2910 and DVD-3910, by replacing their analogue output stages with valve circuits and upgrading their power supplies, clocks and wiring. The modified players were reviewed enthusiastically in the mid-2000s and became a well-known example of the modification scene, in which specialist firms re-engineer mass-produced equipment to improve its sound. Tucker also designed his own electronics, including a valve line preamplifier, a single-ended 300B power amplifier and digital converters, as well as loudspeakers. Exemplar's work was praised for bringing a more natural, valve-like sound to digital playback. Its current status is unclear, and Exemplar-modified players now appear mainly on the second-hand market. Modifications like these show how much performance can be unlocked from well-built mass-market players by re-engineering the parts that matter most, especially the analogue output stage.
Notable Exemplar Audio products
- Exemplar Denon DVD-2900
- Exemplar DVD-3910
- Exemplar preamplifier
- 300B power amplifier
More about Exemplar Audio
Exemplar Audio was founded in July 0f 2001 by John Tucker although its roots go back much farther through a long and continuing series of serendipitous events. While working at the Johnson Space Center on the Space Shuttle program in the early 1990s, John met and became friends with Jeff Markwart, another engineer and avid audiophile working at the Space Center. Their common interests soon led to a collaborative effort modifying existing tube electronics gear and Altec Voice of the Theatre speaker systems. Their initial efforts on the Altecs resulted in an article on modifying them for home audio in Sound Practices.
Even with extensive rework the Altecs didn’t provide the level of performance that John & Jeff were looking for though. They began the design of the Exemplar Horns and formed Triode Support Systems to market them and provided another article for Sound Practices on the Exemplar Horns. Early in the horn project John met the late John Camille and efforts on the electronics rose to a new level. From the mid 90s until his passing, John and John Camille worked on the refinement of work John Camille had already began as well as new and innovative designs for the refinement and control of tube based electronics.
They often worked together until the wee hours of the morning hatching and refining their design ideas. One result was the C4S (Camille Cascode Constant Current Source) which is still in use today. At CES in 1997 yet another fatefull event transpired with John’s introduction to Winston Ma of First Impression Music. Again a deep friendship soon evolved rooted in their deep passion for audio.
Winston has provided continuing support, guidance and evaluation of the development efforts at Exemplar Audio.
Sources: 6moons.com, soundstageultra.com