LexiCON

Technology is great, right? But often, you - the consumer get hoseblasted by companies that will rip you the fuck off any chance they get. And this is even worse than the overpriced Monster cables from a while back. Above you see two Blu-ray players. On the bottom is the Oppo BDP-83, a $500 machine. On top is the Lexicon BD-30, which will set you back $3,500. Can you spot the difference, apart from the price?

Of course not, because it’s a trick question. There is no difference, and certainly not on the inside. In one of the ballsiest moves in scammy flammy history, it appears that Lexicon simply bought a batch of Oppos and put them in new cases. No, Lexicon did not even take the guts of the Oppo and redesign the surrounding circuitry. If you open up the $3,500 Lexicon, you will find an entire Oppo Blu-ray player inside. Intact. With its original chassis.

These are the findings of Audioholics, the “Online A/V Magazine”. their suspicions were raised after spotting the Lexicon at the 2009 CEDIA Expo in Atlanta. “Looking at the player, its button layout and, most importantly, it’s [sic] rear panel, showed us that this product had the exact same layout as the Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player.” Here's your smoking gun:

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 ALUMINUM LEXICON WRAPPER.

Ouch. Audioholics didn’t bother to actually review the machine, sincethe Oppo had already been tested. The reviewers did, however, run some audio analyses to check out the one advertised difference between the two players: the THX certification on the Lexicon model. And as expected, the units tested almost identically, no different than had they been two examples of the same model (which, really, they are). So an extra $3,000 buys you a THX label and a new, aluminum faceplate.

THX’s Graham McKenna pointed out that there was actually some modification of the Oppo hardware: THX worked directly with Oppo to improve video performance during the testing of the Lexicon player and the benefits made their way to the Oppo platform as well. It’s also important to note that THX is solely focused on quality and performance. Product pricing is never a driving factor for receiving THX certification. Which again makes you only pay more for the shiny box and the brand name. Audioholics has the whole scandal detailed, along with comparison pictures of the two Blu-ray players.

It's a tremendously shitty thing to do, considering Lexicon is famous for it's reverb units in the recording world - though with digital modeling, they can no longer get the absurd prices for their outboard gear. Sounds like the last gasp of a once respectable company...