Lexicon is now facing a major public backlash and possible legal action after being caught rebadging an older Blu-ray player and selling it for a significant mark up.
Specifically, the Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player ($500) may have been put in a new case and rebadged as the BD-30 ($3,500) player. BDP-83 owners who view the front panel of the BD-30 will find a very familiar layout, including the same front and back panels.
"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. As far as we could determine, Lexicon didn’t change a single thing in terms of the hardware," a reviewer noted. "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.”
Manufacturers will sometimes keep the same front panel controls in newer-generation models, but a group of geeks at Audioholics decided to look inside both players. Except for different color caps connecting to the PSU, everything else is the same.
The BD-30 is quieter than the BDP-83, according to some reports, but have the same Anchor Bay VRS video processing chip, among other similar specifications.
Lexicon hasn't publicly responded to the accusations.
