Lexicon is well-known for their reverb andecho equipment in the late 70's and early 80's. They are really well-known andrespected in the studio world, but make no equipment for the home audioindustry, until 1986 came around.

Lexicon’s Dolby Pro-Logic surround designand effects processors, came from tests on real-room environments and they designedthe effects based on their findings, and with the 5.1 & 7.1 surrounds onthe CP-1 units, it also has a very accurate Auto-Azimuth Correction circuitthat corrects time-delay errors.

The CP-1 is still a usable unit in this dayand age. There is an option on the Lexicon that allows you to put it into twochannel mode, called PANORAMA, and with only two speakers eliminate"stereo crosstalk to adjust the negative input signal that is employed toeliminate crosstalk, so that the soundstage doesn't sound like it is comingfrom one side or another. It has a calibration option, and a SPEAKER ANGLEsetting that allows the unit to compensate for close speaker placement, or widespeaker placement.

Here is a direct quote from the owner’smanual:

"Whena listener is in the correct spot, the PANORAMA mode provides an almost idealre-creation of the original recording space. It works by using digitalprocessing to cancel the crosstalk between the listener's ears, effectivelyspreading the sound from the two front loudspeakers in a wide arc in front ofthe listener. With optional addition of rear speakers, PANORAMA can be almostspooky in its realism."



The design of this unit not only enablesyou to use it in a processor loop, but also allows you to use it as a unitgo-between for your amp and pre-amp-essentially turning the Lexicon into aPre-amp, and it has the capability to control all of the volumes for each poweramplifier.

People are starting to realize what thisunit is capable of.

The unit originally sold for around $1500 andhad a reputation for obvious quality, sonic cleanliness, and for being THEstate-of-the-art Dolby Pro-Logic decoder for home theater. The basic mode I use(with 2 speakers in their normal positions) is "Panorama," a generalpurpose crosstalk-cancelling affair. The extremely thorough, clear owner'smanual says this effect can be uncanny on certain recorded material containingample spatial information. It certainly is! The effect is very hard to describein words but, on recordings for which it works well, it seems to communicatemore information from the recording, increases the image size and sharpensdefinition. The image floats well beyond and away from the speakers. It cansound very lovely sometimes and always sounds decent. When you mute the effect,the sound field snaps back to ordinary 2-channel. And it sounds dead andclosed-in compared to the enhanced stuff. The Lexicon is capable of driving 8speakers plus 2 discrete subwoofers. Note that this unit is not really usefulfor home theater since it accepts only 2-channel analog inputs.