Lexicon MC1 & HD Audio Formats

[Dave02]

I've heard that there's a company in US that can modify the Lexicon MC1 so that it can accept HD audio formats. Does anyone know if anyone does this in UK and/ or have any experience of doing it? I don't have a MC1 at the moment, but have been tempted to get one, but am only put off by the absence of support for the new formats.

[crobo]

Originally Posted by Dave02

I've heard that there's a company in US that can modify the Lexicon MC1 so that it can accept HD audio formats. Does anyone know if anyone does this in UK and/ or have any experience of doing it? I don't have a MC1 at the moment, but have been tempted to get one, but am only put off by the absence of support for the new formats.

A guy in the US used to add an analogue 5.1 or 7.1 board, but this was a while ago and I'm not sure whether he does this now. TBH, other decent processors with 7.1 analogue inputs are now just as cheap anyway after you factor in the cost of the mods (though the MC1 is still a good unit).

[Ianfromnotts]

Firstly I have an MC1 for sale in the classifieds - so you can take my coments and advice at face value as intended or not as you please.

The MC1 is in my onion a truly fabulous processor I have read posts from people who prefer it to the MC12 !! mind you as it was £5000 at first launch nearly 10 years back it should be something special. I think it is still well ahead of all but maybe the most expensive top of the range Japanese stuff and at current prices is an absolute bargain.

It sounds fantastic on AV and has so much flexibility in set up

Ok Stereo isn't its strength but if you use the expansion ports and by pass the processor the problems only really surface with high end amps and speakers

Expansion Ports - yes - well ahead of their day and meridian use some thing similar too - more of this later

Yes as far as I know Shawn Fogg still offers the 7.1 channel by pass installed for very sensible money or he will sell you a kit to DIY.

Lexicon 8 channel analog bypass input

A forum member used to offer the same in the Uk but his site is down these days so I guess no longer - if you search on here you might find contact details. He was expensive though.

Interestingly Shawn Fogg also offers these

3x S/PDIF Transceiver (In/Out)

which you could ad to the sources and send 5.1 digital, direct the the front rear and sub dacs all via the expansion ports

Using the expansion port for the front channels - ie using the MC1 as a DAC is pretty good and far better, for music, than routing through the DSP options

the other thing worth thinking about is getting an HD player like my XA1 that will output a 1.5mps DTS sound track - The lexicon really handles this well and I am sure it will be far better than any run of the mill HD processor. It is a significant step up on SD audio

http://www.avforums.com/forums/ampli...xicon-mc1.html

Ian

[Ianfromnotts]

Check this thread out - you might want to PM a couple of people

Lexicon MC-1 8 channel Analogue by-pass

[chrisgeary]

Actually I think the MC1 is awesome in Stereo. I use its DACs and don't bypass anything. I prefer it to my old Meridian 500 series processors.

[Ianfromnotts]

Have you tried it through the expansion ports ? if not it is well worth the effort.

[crobo]

The MC1 will sound great with the XA1 because, as pointed out, it converts everything to high-bitrate DTS. This might not be so useful if you are not into HD-DVDs, because it's a defunct format and nothing new will come out. However, unless I'm mistaken, blu-rays with DTS MA soundtracks (a fairly high % of blu-rays) will also be played at 1.5 Mps (someone correct me if I am wrong) and this is pretty much lossless to my ears.