This is a very, very bad thing Lexicon did. And thanks to the super sleuths at Audioholics, they got very, very caught.
The Lexicon BD-30 is a $US3500 (!!!), THX-Certified Blu-ray player. Unfortunately, aside from some slight re-branding, it’s also a $US500 Oppo BDP-83, chassis and all. From the review:
“When we received the player the first thing we did was open it up to get a look at the inside. Imagine my surprise when I found that not only did the Lexicon share the same boards and transport as the Oppo – it was in fact AN OPPO BDP-83 PLAYER, CHASSIS AND ALL, SHOVED INSIDE AN aluminium LEXICON WRAPPER. As far as we could determine, Lexicon didn’t change a single thing in terms of the hardware. Heck, they didn’t even lift the boards out of the chassis, opting instead to cut out the bottom of their own chassis to accommodate the venting locations, and putting a darker blue filter over the Oppo’s VFD display to give it a slightly deeper hue.”
The entire thing is so galling that it’s actually kind of hilarious… unless you’re someone who just found out you paid a 700 per cent premium on a Blu-ray player. Then again, why on earth were you shelling out that kind of money in the first place? [Audioholics via Consumerist]
matt
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 10:46 AMDo you really think that people who have 3.5k to spend on a BD player are gonna care?
Even Home Theater Magazine, despite knowing this tried to defend the player with statements like:
“I am sure people will attack this player as a ‘rebadged’ Oppo, so I went out and bought an Oppo BD-83 SE in order to fairly compare the two. First off, there is no comparison between the build quality of the two players. The Oppo is lighter and the buttons have a far less solid feel to them. The Lexicon is a taller, much heftier unit. ”
So there you go! a bulky box and a couple of higher quality buttons all for just an extra $3k!!
glennc
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 1:11 PMit really points out how over inflated high-end equipment is. this isn’t the first and won’t be the last
Gerald
Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 4:44 AMI think the real clincher is both units failed to meet the basic specs published by THX for certification. THX and Lexicon have both scrubbed their websites of any mention of THX certification for this blu-ray player. If anyone remembers, this was a huge marketing point for both companies.