Home Video Asylum

TVs, VCRs, DVD players, Home Theater systems and more.

RE: Audioholics is on the warpath

It's a little hard to judge from the photos, but it certainly doesn't LOOK like Lexicon changed any components. For example the capacitors look the same. If they had switched to Vishay resistors, for example, they would definitely look different from the standard resistors, which look like carbon film for the most part as best I can tell - take a look on Michael Percy's website to see what different resistors look like. The Vishays look a little bit like power diodes with radial rather than axial leads, not tan colored round small cylinders. So at least there is no VISIBLE evidence that ANY components were changed. The other main class of components to be changed are the ICs, and I have to assume that Audioholics looked at the labels on the ICs to see if they were different, but maybe that's assuming too much for you. However, this is not in general an expensive proposition to do.

Bypassing a muting circuit just takes a few wires, and changing the grounding again is mostly a matter of re-routing wiring, unless you redesign a circuit board, in which case why would the circuit boards look the same? Again, not a high price endeavor. Damping compound is also relatively inexpensive.

Regardless, I think you're missing the point that all of these changes are relatively INexpensive, whereas what Lexicon is charging is anything but. Back when it was popular to take an inexpensive CD player and modify it with new ICs, resistors and caps, most modifiers charged a few hundred bucks. Even allowing for inflation, increasing the cost 5-fold seems excessive, when the only visible "refinement" is the case.

Unless you're from the Steven Wright school of circuit modification, "Last night, someone broke into my house and replaced all my furniture with exact duplicates!"

By the way, more commentary on this in the General Forum - posted by Dan Banquer, a manufacturer, and see comments by Charles Hansen, another manufacturer, who says Lexicon has done this in the past, and minces no words about saying this puts other manufacturers in a bad light. First time offenders might get the benefit of the doubt, however, for what sure sounds like a repeat offender, I think you're being way too generous.



Edits: 01/19/10

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