Lexicon Rebadged The Oppo Blu-ray Player as Lexicon and got Caught

[bmr3hc]

Found this on the Audio Circle site.

http://consumerist.com/2010/01/company-puts-500-blu-ray-player-in-new-case-charges-3000-markup-and-gets-caught.html

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/transports/high-definition-dvd-players-hd-dvd-blu-ray/lexicon-bd-30-blu-ray-oppo-clone/oppo-inside-lexicon-outside-1

I'm sure more can be found on the internet with a search.

Henry

[Black Sand Cable]

So is the Cambridge Audio BDP and the Ayre DX-5 has some of its guts also.

However you do know where Oppo comes from correct? It's nothing more than a subsidiary of BBK.

[bpape]

"some of its guts" and stuffing the whole machine inside another chassis and jacking the price 7x is 2 different things IMO. 

Bryan

[Black Sand Cable]

"some of its guts" and stuffing the whole machine inside another chassis and jacking the price 7x is 2 different things IMO.  

Bryan

A re-badge is a re-badge.....

Ayre is starting off with the exact same player that Oppo, Cambridge, Lexicon and others have. They can claim that they cover it with pixie dust but at the end of the day, it's still a re-badge.....and they want 10 X what Oppo wants.

[richidoo]

So what's so good about this thing that everyone has to copy it? Transport? DAC? PS? Everything together?

I heard Shane's, it's a great player for $1000.

http://www.slashgear.com/lexicon-bd-30-reviewed-an-oppo-bdp-83-at-7x-the-price-1870267/

There is a big difference. In the picture, notice the Lexicon only has one hole drilled in each foot well, the Oppo has 3.

[tmazz]

And you know what the scariest thing is? Lexicon is not even using Oppo's best DVD player. Oppo recently introduced a BDPSE which has upgraded DACs (ESS Sabre 32), an improved audio output section and a better power supply. The following is from the Oppo web site

"The OPPO BDP-83 Special Edition Blu-ray Disc Player is an exciting upgrade based on the highly acclaimed BDP-83. Already well known for its exceptional audio and video performance, the BDP-83 is upgraded with an all new analog audio stage and improved power supply to become the Special Edition. Designed for the discerning audio enthusiast, the OPPO BDP-83 Special Edition Blu-ray Disc Player delivers an exceptionally wide dynamic range, ultra low distortion, accurate sound stage and jitter-free music clarity via its dedicated stereo and 7.1ch analog audio output.

The OPPO BDP-83 Special Edition uses the state-of-the-art Sabre32 family of Digital-to-Analog Converters (DAC) from ESS Technology. The Sabre32 family is known as one of the industry's highest performance audio DACs and are often found in high-end audiophile and professional equipments."

And the price for the BDP-83SE? $899!

So for 1/4 the price of a Lexicon, you can get the better sounding Oppo directly from Oppo. 

You would think that if they were going to dress up an Oppo they would at least dress up the better sounding one!!!   

You just can't make this stuff up.

[bpape]

"some of its guts" and stuffing the whole machine inside another chassis and jacking the price 7x is 2 different things IMO.  

Bryan

A re-badge is a re-badge.....

Ayre is starting off with the exact same player that Oppo, Cambridge, Lexicon and others have. They can claim that they cover it with pixie dust but at the end of the day, it's still a re-badge.....and they want 10 X what Oppo wants.

Personal opinion.  We'll agree to disagree.  If they'd have done anything else (upgrade the power supply, damp the internals, maybe some better caps), I'd not say a word as that is truly a starting point that's been changed and not just a rebadge.

Bryan

[tmazz]

  If they'd have done anything else (upgrade the power supply, damp the internals, maybe some better caps), I'd not say a word as that is truly a starting point that's been changed and not just a rebadge.

If they did I would agree. But from what was written in the articles and what we can see from the photos this does not appera to be the case. (Of course if they added $5 worth of parts,  dressed it up in a fancy case and upped the price by $3000, I might be a bit troubled by the pricing, but at least I wouldn't feel like they were trying to pull an outright fraud on us.)

[bmr3hc]

Its outrageous that they would think no one would ever know the difference, and the  consumer would be so stupid as to not see the obvious under the cover!! I wonder how long they have been operating under the old addage that a audiophile sucker is born every minute and is blind to the obvious!!

Henry

[BobM]

Ahhh, but the real question is "does it sound better"?   

[rollo]

Ahhh, but the real question is "does it sound better"?   

  If you spent serious money on the clone of course it does. So Bob have you looked inside your Ayre Yet ?  . 


charles

[richidoo]

So Bob have you looked inside your Ayre Yet ?  . 

NO Don't do it!
 

[hometheaterdoc]

The Ayre really is a very different player.  I have no stake in the Ayre situation, so I'm not saying that as a dealer trying to save face or anything.  I've seen the innards up close of the new, soon to be released Ayre player.  It uses the transport of the Oppo and the mutli-channel HDMI connections, etc.  But that's where the similarities end.  The power supplies are completely different and the two channel analog section isn't even remotely similar...

The Ayre situation is like all the CD player manufacturers that use the CD-PRO transport mechanism, etc as the starting point for their players or someone using a Sony transport and then everything else is theirs...

[BobM]

My Ayre is a CX7e-MP, it's not a 5. The Ayre magic comes from the digital filtering algorythm that they use, and that is proprietary. In the digital realm it's not all about the hardware used, it's more about the software. I wonder if Lexicon made any attempt to update the chip programming? Has anyone actually posed the question to them about what they may or may not have changed?

[tmazz]

The Ayre situation is like all the CD player manufacturers that use the CD-PRO transport mechanism, etc as the starting point for their players or someone using a Sony transport and then everything else is theirs...

And that is a legitimate and even beneficial engineering method. It can save the end user quite a bit of money if a small company uses someone else's unit as a starting point rather than designing and tooling up their own unit from scratch (and if it is a good design from scratch why not build upon it and not try to reinvent the wheel). This is done as a matter of course in other industries. Dell doesn't build the hard drives in its PC, it buys them from a HDD manufacturer.

I don't think anyone would think twice about an Oppo being used as the starting point for a better design. (How many people have purchased an Oppo only to rip off the cover and start replacing parts the minute they get it home?) The fact that it is evidently being used as an endpoint is what is so disturbing.