Lexicon gets nailed

[neil_kaye]

One of the most galling bits of high end thievery i have seen in a long time:

Oppo on the Inside, Lexicon on the Outside — Reviews and News from Audioholics

[Xoc1]

Amazing
The Oppo BDP83 retails for £500 in the UK
Lexicon stick the Oppo chassis in a Aluminium box and RRP is £3500
Thats a USD $4900 mark up.
Quote from the Lexicon website - There are no reviews for this product at this time.
I wonder why?

[planet10]

A black mark on Harman for that one. The kind of thing that makes you roll you eyes and make you even less trusting of a lot of high end audio.

Ayre uses the same BDP83 as a donor (cheapest way to get the licencing for the software), but replaces almost everything. They charge $10k (probably reasonable in a world of small runs, and distrib & dealer markups). The extra $9k over a BDP83SE could buy a lot of diy mods....

dave

[analog_sa]

Yup. They topped Goldmund this time.

[MJL21193]

This is typical I think.
There's no difference between that and when they take ordinary copper wire, dress it up in smart looking wrapping and sell it for the cost of a new car.
They KNOW the truth: name and looks sell, it matters not what's inside. Just sprinkle on a bit of the old magical bullshint and let the (apparently brain-dead) audiophiles convince themselves that it sounds better, with a little help from their ad copy, reviews from paid off mags and crooked salesmen.
The "high end" side of this is truly sickening.

[Pano]

Ah yes, Goldmund. That's what I was trying to remember.

There is a lot of rebadging (AKA, OEM) in the electronics world. Video projectors were notorious for it back when I worked with them. But none as bad as this example.

[wwenze]

The best part is when you present them pictures of the innards and challenge them and they claim that theirs is still superior and improved on (with their own design), then they shoot you back and demand you take down pictures of their products or they'll threaten you with a lawsuit.

[scott wurcer]

The problem is there are no boutique manufacturers who could possibly afford to build CD, DVD, or Blu-Ray recorders from scratch. They could at least buy the mechanical guts and design and build the rest, or make a deal with a Chinese supplier of the drives.

[Key]

Originally Posted by planet10

A black mark on Harman for that one. The kind of thing that makes you roll you eyes and make you even less trusting of a lot of high end audio.

I'm pretty sure they have been doing this for a while with different products. I have a Fosgate Audionics Surround Sound unit from the early ninties that shares the same user manual and functionality as a Harman receiver. I think there were variations on the THX logo attached to different units as well even though they probably didn't differ from the ones without the logo.

Originally Posted by scott wurcer

The problem is there are no boutique manufacturers who could possibly afford to build CD, DVD, or Blu-Ray recorders from scratch. They could at least buy the mechanical guts and design and build the rest, or make a deal with a Chinese supplier of the drives.

They could just bite the bullet and work with an ODM. I have no idea but how hard is it to work with them in implementing an idea?

[SY]

Originally Posted by wwenze

The best part is when you present them pictures of the innards and challenge them and they claim that theirs is still superior and improved on (with their own design), then they shoot you back and demand you take down pictures of their products or they'll threaten you with a lawsuit.

You can tell them to go **** up a rope if they're your pictures. If it's their pictures, I'd take them down post-haste and be careful about pulling the tiger's tail again.