Lexicon's $3,500 Blu-ray player is a $500 one in disguise

If someone told you that digital audio equipment purveyor Lexicon had recently introduced the BD-30, a Blu-ray player that costs $3,500, you'd probably think, "what do you get for $3,500?" Well, thanks to the work of the Audioholics Web site, we now know the answer: a snow job.

It turns out that the BD-30 has a dirty little secret inside its case—in the form of an Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player. Now, the BDP-83 is an outstanding unit for those willing to spend a few hundred dollars on a Blu-ray player, but apparently Lexicon has decided it can charge several times that amount for the BD-30. Before you think that maybe Lexicon added some new features or improved technology to command that whopping price difference, think again. Audioholics cracked the cases of the BD-30 and a BDP-83, and found that everything pretty much looks the same, from the electronics to the connectivity. Ironically, the site found that the BDP-83 audio performance was actually better in some cases, due to the inferior Lexicon firmware.

It's nearly a given in 2010 that most electronics "manufacturers" actually procure their electronics from a different company, and then fine-tune and repackage them as their own. But it's a whole other story when you charge an outrageous amount to consumers based on a reputation for superior performance, then merely place the same piece of hardware, which you can buy for far cheaper, in a shiny new case. Don't be surprised if we start seeing more of these stripped-down analyses of luxury home theater products to ferret out more snow jobs.

[Via Engadget HD]