Lexicon BD-30 Blu-ray Player (Oppo BDP-83 Clone) Review

davidtwotrees

davidtwotrees

Audioholic General
Does Lexicon have a leg to stand on? Gosh, I don't know.....Oppo is certainly involved, as well. Also, Lexicon isn't gonna move a ton of blu ray units, are they? How many, 500, 1000? It's not like they could mfgr anything at those small production numbers. Aren't the Lexi amps rebaged Bryston? Ya gotta hand it to em..........they rebadge some pretty damn good products................
 
gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
It seems Lexicon has made a few minor improvements to a solid foundation.
We are still trying to figure out what those improvements are since we didn't see any and they didn't disclose any. :rolleyes:
 
Geno

Geno

Senior Audioholic
I hate Oppo...how else can I justify what I paid for my Denon DVD-3910?:mad:
 
3db

3db

Audioholic Slumlord
Would love to see the looks on the faces of the Lexicon and Oppo owners. I wonder which ones have grins like the chesdhire cat and the one with the sour faces? :p
 
B

Boerd

Full Audioholic
I love Audioholics.... :)
Me too. That's why I am an audioholic.com addict!
I own a Toshiba DVD player I bought 5 years ago that's got 24bit/192Khz audio (model SD 3950) and I bought it for 80$!
My next stop: a BD from audioholics.com; but I am waiting for Netflix on Oppo (not too long though).
 
BigSkreen

BigSkreen

Junior Audioholic
Listen I checked downstairs and I have some Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil. I also found out that I too can buy Oppos. I plan on combining the two and charging $3500 for it.

I know you might be asking why the extra $500. Well I plan on including a marker so that you can add Dolby, THX or any certification you want to it.

Gene I regret that I can't submit it to you for review as these units are flying off of the shelf but I am always looking for new business opportunities with your store.

(tongue planted firmly in cheek)
 
Johnny2Bad

Johnny2Bad

Audioholic Chief
From the review:
" ... Lexicon merely took off the backside so it could fit the connectors flush to its own back plate, and placed a billet aluminum faceplate that sits over the existing Oppo button and VFD hardware. ..."

Ahh, if only they had done that much. But they did not.

Every seemingly thick lump of aluminum is not "billet". There may not even be anything actually called "billet aluminum", it's machinist shorthand for "a billet of aluminum".

The rule of thumb goes like this: if you don't tell your wife that you are "going to take a few thou of my beard this morning" you probably shouldn't be saying "billet aluminum" either.

A billet is a solid chunk of aluminum, that is then machined in a lathe or a 3-axis mill into some kind of part ... like a brake caliper. There is no need to use billet for faceplates ... especially when a much cheaper, readily available part right there in the catalog from your billet supplier is made for the job ... plate aluminum.

I would guess from the photos that the faceplate of the Lexicon hasn't been within a hundred miles of a milling machine. The holes appear stamped; you can see deformations around some square holes, which cannot happen from machine work.

The brushed aluminum finish can, of course, be done by machines, but generally about 15 seconds with a belt sander is how it's usually done in the shop, by the lowliest apprentice or the guy who otherwise sweeps the floor.

That may not sound like a high volume operation, and you would be right. Parts made from billets of metal come from low-volume machine shops that make them, automated for sure, but none the less with a real live highly paid guy running the machine, and then they end up someplace like on your ride from Washington to Bermuda, at 30,000 feet.

The phrase "billet [name of part] comes from the Harley-Davidson custom manufacturing that arose during the 1990's, which itself derives from the advent of CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machining equipment around the same time. That allowed machined parts to be automated, rather than being made 100% by operators, and brought down (somewhat) the price of machined parts to the point where the cost could be spread over hundreds of copies instead of paying for the machining of each one, at the same cost ... 1 or 1,000 (or 10 million if, perhaps, there's a war on).

CNC also meant a certain portability in the manufacture; you could send the data to another firm with the same equipment, rather than rely on using the same, trusted shop for your sources of parts.

At first, and properly, custom parts would be described as "made from a single billet of aluminum" (or any metal). There were always custom parts; you just had to know a machinist who took the time to make one for you. They weren't found by perusing glossy full page ads.

Later, larger volume production became possible, and mass marketing of "custom" machined parts began. Around 1990 or so, advertising copywriters shortened "made from billet" to "billet [wheel, caliper, doorknob, etc]". It's a phrase invented by office types who know nothing about actually making parts. I never once heard a real machinist refer to any part as a "billet [part]" before Madison Avenue introduced the phrase to the lexicon (no pun intended). It's a contradiction; a billet caliper is a caliper that is still a lump of square metal; being a caliper lies somewhere in it's future, and on that day, the billet dies and the caliper is born.

The brushed finish is done to hide the machine and tool marks; in the case of stamped plate aluminum, to somewhat take out the deformations left by the stamping process when making holes. There are a number of other finish options you can consider before you have to go to single-axis milling to make it flat and nice looking; some hifi does exhibit such faceplates ... some hifi does also have faceplates or chassis made from billets of metal. But, it's rarer than most people think ... most of the parts I see may have machining operations done to them, but are usually made from extruded metal (you push it through a die ... heatsinks, for example are extruded and cut to length).

Tellingly, these components with parts made from billet are usually very expensive and sell in the hundreds, or the dozens, or less, not thousands of examples.

It could, of course, conceivably be that the Lexicon faceplate is really made from billet instead of plate. However, if that were the case, we then should really back off of Lexicon on this one. After all, they would have left about 95% of the billet on the floor in chips of high quality, guaranteed purity and composition, tested and certified aluminum, and there's a lot of highly paid people and time involved.

If that's the case, there's the three grand.
 
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gonk

gonk

Full Audioholic
Every seemingly thick lump of aluminum is not "billet". There may not even be anything actually called "billet aluminum", it's machinist shorthand for "a billet of aluminum".
:) - This always bugs me, too.
 
majorloser

majorloser

Moderator
We are still trying to figure out what those improvements are since we didn't see any and they didn't disclose any. :rolleyes:
Duh, the splash screen on start up say "Lexicon", not Oppo. ;)

I wonder what would happen if you downloaded the Oppo firmware to a flashdrive and try to install it. Would it revert back to an Oppo splash screen? :rolleyes:
 
jeffsg4mac

jeffsg4mac

Republican Poster Boy
Duh, the splash screen on start up say "Lexicon", not Oppo. ;)

I wonder what would happen if you downloaded the Oppo firmware to a flashdrive and try to install it. Would it revert back to an Oppo splash screen? :rolleyes:
Betcha a box of ammo it does. That is why Clint can't do the firmware update until Lexicon gets their servers up. The lexicon's current firmware is probably directing it to a different IP that is not running yet. Put the Oppo firmware back on and presto I bet it becomes an Oppo and the firmware update works.
 
majorloser

majorloser

Moderator
Betcha a box of ammo it does. That is why Clint can't do the firmware update until Lexicon gets their servers up. The lexicon's current firmware is probably directing it to a different IP that is not running yet. Put the Oppo firmware back on and presto I bet it becomes an Oppo and the firmware update works.
On the Oppo you can put the firmware on just by inserting a flashdrive loaded with the firmware in the USB port.

I'd try this BETA version:
http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83/bdp-83-firmware-48-1224b.aspx

BTW- I can use some .357Sig
 
jliedeka

jliedeka

Audioholic General
I think for people who buy this sort of stuff, if you tell them it sounds better, it will sound better to them. Shame on you Audioholics for ruining it for them. :D

Jim
 
BudgetHT

BudgetHT

Audioholic
I love when the truth comes out.:D
Good job Gene.:cool:
As a side note: Although Oppo is a great player(from everything I have read). They should be a little embarrassed by this. You can't tell me they were not aware of what Lexicon was doing.
 
gonk

gonk

Full Audioholic
As a side note: Although Oppo is a great player(from everything I have read). They should be a little embarrassed by this. You can't tell me they were not aware of what Lexicon was doing.
Are you sure about that? OPPO is largely a separate entity from BBK Electronics, which is the company that manufactures their players in China. BBK is presumably also selling parts to Lexicon. Based on something I read at SMR yesterday, Lexicon is assembling the BD-30 in Indiana from those parts. It is possible that the folks out in San Francisco didn't know how much of the original BDP-83 design was actually under the hood of the BD-30. And if they did know, what would they do about it? Laugh? Shake their heads in amazement? I don't see a reason for embarrassment unless it is sympathetic embarrassment for Lexicon - who appears to deserve to be embarrassed. About the only thing I'd do in OPPO's place is double-check the contracts for the licensing of the design: it might be time to start charging more!
 
BudgetHT

BudgetHT

Audioholic
Are you sure about that? OPPO is largely a separate entity from BBK Electronics, which is the company that manufactures their players in China. BBK is presumably also selling parts to Lexicon. Based on something I read at SMR yesterday, Lexicon is assembling the BD-30 in Indiana from those parts. It is possible that the folks out in San Francisco didn't know how much of the original BDP-83 design was actually under the hood of the BD-30. And if they did know, what would they do about it? Laugh? Shake their heads in amazement? I don't see a reason for embarrassment unless it is sympathetic embarrassment for Lexicon - who appears to deserve to be embarrassed. About the only thing I'd do in OPPO's place is double-check the contracts for the licensing of the design: it might be time to start charging more!
Thanks gonk. I was under the assumption that Oppo was in house.
 
Seth=L

Seth=L

Audioholic Overlord
Are you sure about that? OPPO is largely a separate entity from BBK Electronics, which is the company that manufactures their players in China. BBK is presumably also selling parts to Lexicon. Based on something I read at SMR yesterday, Lexicon is assembling the BD-30 in Indiana from those parts. It is possible that the folks out in San Francisco didn't know how much of the original BDP-83 design was actually under the hood of the BD-30. And if they did know, what would they do about it? Laugh? Shake their heads in amazement? I don't see a reason for embarrassment unless it is sympathetic embarrassment for Lexicon - who appears to deserve to be embarrassed. About the only thing I'd do in OPPO's place is double-check the contracts for the licensing of the design: it might be time to start charging more!
Indiana?!, I live in Indiana, maybe I could go check their operation out myself.:D

Edit: Cannot find it, it must be secret.:D
 
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Seth=L

Seth=L

Audioholic Overlord
If the BD-30 is a clone of the BDP-83 then wouldn't that make the BDP-83 SE of superior quality compared to the BD-30?
 
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