I realize that it is a bit late to be responding to this post, but this reply from Tannoyite just got my goat. I was just poking around, looking for reviews of processors, when I came across this post.
First, let me state that I would have to agree that one would probably not appreciate much difference between the two high-end DVD/SACD players. Let's face it, we all know (or should know) that many of these rarified players are not built in-house from the ground up. At least, that's when it comes to DVD and Blu-ray players. The guts of the new Lexicon RT-30 is supposedly an Oppo. But then, who makes the guts for the Oppo? NAD came out with an exorbitantly expensive ($2000 or so) Blu-ray player last year, which looked and felt like a cheap Panasonic. Well it was a Panasonic, only with a similarly cheap looking NAD skin. Shame on NAD. At least Lexicon dresses their stuff up nicely, and you feel like you are getting what you pay for.
On to the point of why I was perturbed: What's wrong with a Crown amplifier? I thought Crown had a pretty good reputation. Newer Lexicon amps are made by ATI (or some such company). I have a Lexicon MC-8 and LX-5 amp (manufactured by Crown) which I bought in 2003, and I am still amazed by how good it sounds (both for music and movies). Anyway, that Lexicon distributor sounds like an idiot. What are his special credentials? One likely biased distributor says "they sounded like rubbish", and you take his word as gospel? Rubbish!