Lyngdorf MP-40 2.1 AV Processor Review

[jhaider]

Where in the article does it say any of this?

I’ll need to see this “public but not official” unblinding.

Presumably you have access to internet searches.

 

[Dougey_Jones]

Presumably you have access to internet searches.

This?

“
Tonmeister2008
291 posts · Joined 2008

#3 · Nov 1, 2009
The products I tested are listed in slide 7 in alphabetical order:

• Anthem Statement D2
• Audyssey Room Equalizer
• Harman (6 seat average)
• Harman (optimized for primary seat)
• Lyngdorf DPA-1
• No Equalization

In the subjective and objective test results that follow, I have hidden the identities of the products and simply used the codes RC1 through RC6 - assigned to the products in descending order of preference. For the purposes of the paper, the product identities are not relevant. Sorry.”

Hardly as conclusive as you’re selling it as.

This is noteworthy:

So the preference for RC1/2 comes down to their extended bass performance and spectral rise into the bass. It makes me wonder how these RCs would compare if that element were removed from the equation. How well do these RCs compare wrt small response errors, or phase--if that's an issue, or multi-seat coverage, or room modes? Maybe they all do pretty much the same there (ignoring RC6

), and thus would all sound pretty much the same once the consumer could dial in his preferred house curve.


The test certainly shows the value in getting the house curve right. Did it mask the other more subtle performance aspects where room correctors might more importantly distinguish themselves, areas that can only be addressed by the RC algorithm, and not a tone control or EQ?

 

[jhaider]

This?

Clearly not. If a written confirmation came directly from Dr. Olive that would be official.

Respectfully, my statements about this study are common knowledge to anyone who’s followed the evolution of automated room correction over the past 20 years or so. But you can obviously believe what you want, and clearly for whatever reason you have a stick up your ass about this AVP specifically and RP generally. Unfortunately I don’t foresee productive dialogue here, so I’m out. You may have the last word(s), sir.

 

[amirm]

There is an AES paper on workings of RoomPerfect: https://aes2.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=14202

 

[Dougey_Jones]

There is an AES paper on workings of RoomPerfect: https://aes2.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=14202

Not paying $33 just to read the white paper.

 

[Moonbase]

The review is great thanks amirm. In the conclusion is it meant to read "just stopping the best we have tested." or "just stopping short of the best we have tested"?

Just need a Lyngdorf MXA-8400 power amp and some speakers LOL

​

 

[schnarcherstrasse]

Thank you for the review - i own a MP40 2.0 myself and found some of the replies similar to comments i heard from guys who never actually had their hands on a Lyngdorf or have any experience with RP.
It is easy to run and results are really good. After my tests with other high end systems i would always go with Lyngdorf and RP.

 

[exm]

Thank you for the review - i own a MP40 2.0 myself and found some of the replies similar to comments i heard from guys who never actually had their hands on a Lyngdorf or have any experience with RP.
It is easy to run and results are really good. After my tests with other high end systems i would always go with Lyngdorf and RP.

I own the MP-60 2.1 (coming from the OG Lexicon processors, and a bunch of Marantz with the 8802A the last one). The Lyngdorf is as close as I'll ever get to the Lexicon Logic 7, it does wonders in my imperfect room with RoomPerfect and it's super easy to use. Yes, it's very expensive and yes, it's probably overpriced. But it's a great unit.

 

[Claudius999]

I own the MP-60 2.1 (coming from the OG Lexicon processors, and a bunch of Marantz with the 8802A the last one). The Lyngdorf is as close as I'll ever get to the Lexicon Logic 7, it does wonders in my imperfect room with RoomPerfect and it's super easy to use. Yes, it's very expensive and yes, it's probably overpriced. But it's a great unit.

Same here. I own an MP-60 2.0. Previously I had an Arcam 860 with full Dirac ( no DBLC). and before that, a Yamaha aventage 3010 with YPAO and the very first one was an onkyo with Audissey ( I forgot the name). Each upgrade was an incremental improvement. I settled on Lyngdorf and RP after trying the stereo version of a baby Lyngdorf 1120 and then upgrading to 3400, which were subjectively much better DSP-wise than DIRAC or other flavours of room correction.
The MP-60 is expensive. So is MP 40. I would strongly suggest looking in the second hand market if you need/want one, as brand new they are a bit too much. But still worth it.

 

[Descartes]

Very nice just too expensive!

 

[Descartes]

I couldn't disagree more whole heartedly.

I have plenty of expensive gear, and could afford one of these AVP's if I wanted to. I use Dirac for my 2ch setup, and used Dirac previously on an RZ50 before selling it to try out XT32 on the x3700h. XT32 tuned on an iPad with the Audyssey app has provided more enjoyment and less futzing around than my former Dirac home theater setup, and I have extreme doubts that RoomPerfect would provide a better result.

I have exclusively been using AVR's as AVP's since nobody wants to sell an AVP at a normal price anymore. I'd happily pay $2-3k for a competent AVP, but everyone wants $5-10k for less performance and features just because they assume you can afford it if you can afford outboard amps.

This is (IMO) a product for custom installers (I used to be one) to sell to people with more money than sense.

With 50 points profit margin dealers make good $$$$

 

[Dougey_Jones]

I own the MP-60 2.1 (coming from the OG Lexicon processors, and a bunch of Marantz with the 8802A the last one). The Lyngdorf is as close as I'll ever get to the Lexicon Logic 7, it does wonders in my imperfect room with RoomPerfect and it's super easy to use. Yes, it's very expensive and yes, it's probably overpriced. But it's a great unit.

I truly miss Logic7, and wish that Harman had kept the brand alive rather than fold it into JBL Synthesis. Logic7 and Meridian Tri-Field are two DSP's that I have an unreasonable, bordering on emotional attachment to.

 

[Titurel]

I truly miss Logic7, and wish that Harman had kept the brand alive rather than fold it into JBL Synthesis. Logic7 and Meridian Tri-Field are two DSP's that I have an unreasonable, bordering on emotional attachment to.

Lexicon made some really nice gear - I have a couple of their reverb units sitting in my closet, gathering dust. The 480L was a real studio workhouse along with EMT plate reverbs.

 

[hwest]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Lyngdorf MP-40 version 2.1 12-channel Audio/Video Processor. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $11,299.
View attachment 370979
Apologies for lousy beauty shot. I did not want to remove the protective plastics. I was very pleased to see a "real" volume control with flywheel momentum and very responsive input selection knob. A highly useful web interface is provided which I used to configure the unit. In addition to being an AV Processor, the MP-40 can also act as a USB DAC (a rarity in AV products) and supports Roon streaming over the network, both of which I tested below.
View attachment 370981
The unit is targeted at the Custom Integration (CI) channel as evidenced by extensive triggering functionality and such things as serial interface. Not many HDMI inputs are provided though.

Lyngdorf MP-40 2.1 AV Processor Measurements
Let's start by testing HDMI input and measuring noise+distortion:
View attachment 370982
Channel 2 has excellent performance ranking at the top of our SINAD tier. Sadly distortion is higher in Channel 1 (Left) bringing their average a couple of notches lower:
View attachment 370983
Bits should be bits and MP-40 shows this by having identical performance with both USB input and Streaming:
View attachment 370984

View attachment 370985

It is easier for me to test using USB input so that is what you will see in the rest of the tests. Output goes up to a healthy 8 volts:
View attachment 370986

Unlike some other AV products, the volume control does not change the gain structure. You just get less output voltage which is one expects. You can see that performance is maintained almost up to max output. We see that lower performing channel takes a hit at just 1.4 volt. Very strange.

Edit: forgot dynamic range:
View attachment 371131

Linearity also shows a strange negative tilt at lower levels:
View attachment 370987

IMD performance is very good by AV standards:
View attachment 370988

Here, we see an increase in distortion at around -8 dB which is likely due to 60 Hz component in this test. We see that increase in THD+N vs frequency:

View attachment 370989

For compatibility with stereophile testing, here is 50 Hz response into a very low load impedance:
View attachment 370990

Jitter performance is again good for an AV product:
View attachment 370991

I did not see a configurable filter but what is there is good:
View attachment 370992

It does droop a bit in frequency response though:
View attachment 370993

Conclusions
The build quality and feature set of MP-40 V2.1 is excellent. Measured performance seems very good, just stopping the best we have tested. I am wondering whether there are part variations that caused the one channel to underperform. One main feature, RoomPerfect EQ, was tested before and turns in excellent performance. So as a package, I expect this processor to perform quite well. Some of you may know that the company/its founder have funded Purifi amplifier companies. Seeing how they squeeze every bit of distortion and noise out of their products, I am hoping that the same gets done in their processors in the future.

I am going to put the Lyngdorf MP-40 V 2.1 on my recommended list.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

This is great, I have heard this exact unit personally and wow it sounds great, again I put it far above any Marantz or Denon in real world listening to me it's in a different class altogether.

 

[DR&Dog]

For those of you who may not know: Lyngdorf did a "silent" update of their USB streaming capacity. The MP40 2.1 will read from a NTSF USB source; it reads and plays perfectly. All of the positive comments in the reviews online are completely justified. Simplicity of use, complexity of sound. Like no other processor/preamp I've used over decades of gear.

 

[PEQuestrian]

I was getting close to picking up a used MP-40 or 60 2.1 before looking at their spec sheet that is listing HDMI speeds for the "2.1" units as limited to 40Gbps. Somehow, I completely missed the news that 2.1 also comes in (a) and (b = 48Gbps) flavors but only the latter unlocks 120Hz with 4K gaming. Boy am I glad I saw this before pulling the trigger...

Has anyone seen news or heard rumors about when Lyngdorf may be updating the HDMI boards on these again or the processors themselves?

 

[ban25]

I was getting close to picking up a used MP-40 or 60 2.1 before looking at their spec sheet that is listing HDMI speeds for the "2.1" units as limited to 40Gbps. Somehow, I completely missed the news that 2.1 also comes in (a) and (b = 48Gbps) flavors but only the latter unlocks 120Hz with 4K gaming. Boy am I glad I saw this before pulling the trigger...

Has anyone seen news or heard rumors about when Lyngdorf may be updating the HDMI boards on these again or the processors themselves?

4K120 runs fine with 40 Gbps (Xbox Series X is capped at 40 Gbps, PS5/PS5 Pro is capped at 32 Gbps). 48 Gbps data rate, which is not implemented by any AVR/AVP on the market as of 2025 regardless of manufacturer, is only necessary for 4K144. HDMI 2.2 was recently announced at CES. I would expect most manufacturers to stick to 40 Gbps until adopting HDMI 2.2 sometime probably in 2026.

 

[exm]

I was getting close to picking up a used MP-40 or 60 2.1 before looking at their spec sheet that is listing HDMI speeds for the "2.1" units as limited to 40Gbps. Somehow, I completely missed the news that 2.1 also comes in (a) and (b = 48Gbps) flavors but only the latter unlocks 120Hz with 4K gaming. Boy am I glad I saw this before pulling the trigger...

Has anyone seen news or heard rumors about when Lyngdorf may be updating the HDMI boards on these again or the processors themselves?

Nothing to be upset about, the unit can pass-through up to 4K@120Hz 4:4:4 RGB 10 bit w/HDR at 40Gbps. 99.9% Most of the content only goes up to 10 bit anyway, the 48Gbps is only needed for 12 bit 4:4:4 rgb 4k 120 hz.

 

[PEQuestrian]

Nothing to be upset about, the unit can pass-through up to 4K@120Hz 4:4:4 RGB 10 bit w/HDR at 40Gbps. 99.9% Most of the content only goes up to 10 bit anyway, the 48Gbps is only needed for 12 bit 4:4:4 rgb 4k 120 hz.

View attachment 420895

Appreciate you sharing this. Wasn't upset, on the contrary, but this is positive news, except for my wallet.

What is - however - a bit of a WTF? moment is PS5 Pro (still) being capped at 32 Gbps...