[Madeupword]

  ..As for what is happening with my unit, Casey will arrange for a new Pulse to be sent to me, with a refund note for the return shipping to the United States for my faulty unit. This is a special thing they are doing specifically for my case and not something that they would do for ordinary customers. Again, I do reviews in Youtube. I am aware that I have a big megaphone..
 
..It seems especially urgent to be asking these kinds of questions when a campaign started in 2013 and has not been fully delivered by 2015, and in the meantime the company continues to solicit funds..
 
..It's true that groundless speculation isn't helpful, but I can tell you that I would not be so invested in this story if I had not heard some things privately that make me worry a great deal. I am doing my best to investigate and verify the public statements that LH have released, and again I do urge people to share the survey I have set up: http://goo.gl/forms/AR827KTu3t

 
Quote:

  ..I'll put it simply. Even before receiving my faulty unit, I have taken a dim view of LH's practices. I got in very very early, and since then I have been increasingly bewildered and wary of the constant parade of perks and campaigns..
 
..I was trying to see how an ordinary customer would deal with this situation without having the benefit of a social media following. So I opened a ticket and posted on their forum - both things that LH suggested - and I didn't get a resolution for 1 month..

 
You are not special. There have been instances where LH has provided two-way shipping/refund when issue was not cause by user.
 
How about more accurate writing of a campaign which started out late/end of 2013, that had its crowd-design froze in late Sept 2014 with initial production in late Oct 2014. Accompanied by holiday season, various manufacturing delays and prominent port delay which has only reopen earlier this month?
 
Port strike was reported on all major news outlets and here are photos by photographer Mike Kelley, Aerial photography of the labor dispute at the Port of LA and Long Beach
 
That's right, you're invested in this story. With words in private, as private as LH's finance and a knowingly biased survey which only form an inconclusive sample without the real numbers. With variables likely to form a conjecture than fact.
 
You also mentioned it's better to have some numbers than no number. LH has provided you a percentage and you didn't like that. Hence you've decided to create your own.
 
I find it hard to believe any ordinary customer would sit and wait for a resolution after having "tossed around" by 4 CSAs for a month. I would have sent a number of emails to a number of key personnel. More so, when I see a number of aggressive, dramatic and vocal individuals repeatedly voicing their concerns. They are not the kind to sit still.
 
Again, I am only speaking as a Light Harmonic backer, I am not an employee and I have raised questions many times via the proper channels.

 

[doctorjazz]

I started out ready to post a long sob story about my dealings with LH Labs, but I'll hold off, nuff angry writing out there and on this thread. I just wanted to make the point that, in the time I've been dealing with them (since the 1st Geek Out campaign), I have had to post publicly to get some response from them. Tickets haven't worked for me, I might get an automated response, I might get a quick blow-me-off response. When I post something angry here or on the LH site, then I hear back from someone at LH trying to deal with my ticket. Even then, if it's handed off to someone else, there is a good chance it won't be resolved, and even closed. I'm currently trying to straighten out the pledges, they don't add up, some are missing (for Vi Tube), some are excessive (Wave). When I finally made a fuss I did hear from Gina, then it was handed to Manny, who didn't really answer my issues. When I wrote back for more detail, I got an answer that, maybe I'm oversensitive, but I sensed the same condescension some have noted ("Let me bullet point this one for you here...so we can be as clear as possible for you..."). Frankly, even if I'm a jerk, this is not the way to respond, and it leaves a very bad taste in the mouth. I sent my own "bullet points" of the specific issues 2 days ago, still waiting to hear back. So, maybe this is boring if you're not in it, and hopefully you all never will be, but "Customer Happiness" there still needs some work as far as I can see. (and, maybe, now that I've posted here again, someone will get back to me and settle the issues )

 

[nudd]

Let's get over this ponzi scheme stuff. Whatever. It just clouds the issues right now. For now, let's stay away from this pointless speculation. They are shipping xfi's and let's leave it at that. If some HPA backer doesn't get his HPA ... well they should have known better right? For us Pulse and Wave backers, I want more people backing LHL if it is truly a ponzi scheme. It increases the chances of LHL shipping the Pulse and Wave before they go under.
 
What I want is better communication, timely information in order to make decisions and no more screw ups from customer service. Here is what is bugging me so far.
 
Customer service and shipping stuff ups
 
So the latest real examples, is that the LHL forums have at least two people who are now getting shipping notices of xfi's instead of infinities. Despite repeated reassurances that this would never ever happen.
 
So for stuff ups like that, if the xfi's actually do get shipped out instead of an infinity (if it was MY infinity, for example), I fully expect LHL to bear the shipping costs for that type of screw up. Per their policies, apparently they don't have to and you are reliant on their good graces to do it on a case by case, exceptions only, basis (maybe if you kick up enough fuss or have 30k followers or whatever). That shouldn't be the case. Besides, where are the good graces of LHL when Larry said warranties for backers were transferable and then Gavin said it was not? Good graces can change at any time.
 
So are we saying LHL gets a free pass on these clear errors, when they say customers are always expected to be perfect and NEVER makes mistakes?
 
Two additional cases piss me off on this:

1. refusing to allow a person to redeploy their perk when they mistakenly backed the wrong perk due to confusing perk language (aka, the monoblock affair).
2. refusing to add a sanity check on their dfu update process, which forces all customers to have a 0% error rate when updating firmware, when LHL admits they themslves have a 5% defect rate on shipped units. Also are saying in effect they allowed to require customers to pay for LHLmaking mistakes like accidentally sending someone an xfi instead of an infinity (which by the way, should be much less likely than someone accidentally choosing the wrong update file when doing a firmware update) because, whoops something happened with their systems, and everyone can make mistakes, right? But on the other hand we users have to be PERFECT or we are simply screwed. Come on. We are human beings, we all make mistakes. Why is there no sanity checking.

 
Web and ordering information
 
So for things like the wave survey - where the hell is it!? Come on. If you can release more perks, then make sure you got that survey system fixed guys!
 
Non timely information to back perks
 
Where is the explanation from Larry what they are doing with the new ESS Chip upgrade? Where is the promised sharing of testing results?
 
Larry has now had the new ESS chip for weeks. Surely he can explain what he is doing to the infinity. Why am I forced to go blind into a perk not knowing if it has any tangible benefits (even if it is a hypothetical 2 dB improvement that is below human auditory limits).
 
It's only $22, but time runs out in 2 days but where is information?
 
(Not a Pulse issue, but for Wave)
 
Over in the Wave thread, somebody has apparently had a message from Manny that the max gain of the Wave with the iem mod and the normal wave is not the same. This is not consistent with what Casey has said previously. Despite invocations to @Mannytorres I do not believe this issue has been addressed yet.
 
Instead @Mannytorres simply says the max input power of the Geek Verb is 450 mW. W ... T ... F ... This is bringing back nightmares of when Carlos was doing customer service all over again. Totally garbled responses that answer questions that were NEVER asked in the first place and never answer questions that are actually asked. I thought this phase of LHL's customer services was relegated to ancient history.
 
Surely LHL should know by now what the gain switch actually does - WHAT is the OUTPUT at high gain and what is the OUTPUT at low gain.
 
So ... lots of room to improve guys.
 
Thought steps have been made in the right direction, but the case of the accidentally shipping xfi's puts it all in doubt again.

 

[Drsparis]

Originally Posted by nudd /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Customer service and shipping stuff ups
 
So the latest real examples, is that the LHL forums have at least two people who are now getting shipping notices of xfi's instead of infinities. Despite repeated reassurances that this would never ever happen.

Can't people just refuse the package, it will be sent back to LH Labs, Done.

 

[mscott58]

Nudd - All totally valid criticisms with a productive focus on how to make things better. Well done. Agree with your points and concerns.

And I assume the second half of your first paragraph was a bit tongue-in-cheek?

Cheers

 

[Ostrichcized]

Also a backer since the Out on Kickstarter, so I'll share my customer service experience for an alternate perspective. While I will say that the customer service has plenty of room for improvement, I'd like to say that as a regular consumer with no special connections, I've been very pleased with the end results of my interactions with LH through tickets thus far, though not necessarily the time frame required to get there. I have never contacted LH outside of the support system.
 
1) Issue: Static on Geek Out
    First response: 4 days
    Assigned: Carlos and Manny
    Responses to Resolution: 5
    Total Time to Resolution: 17 days (not including shipping)
    Resolution: LH had me send the unit back, immediately shipped a replacement (a step up from what I backed), and refunded my return shipping cost.
 
2) Issue: Wave Pledge Change
    First response: 4 days
    Assigned: Carlos
    Responses to Resolution: 1
    Total Time to Resolution: 4 days
    Resolution: Instructed to wait until the campaign was over to finalize changes.
 
3) Issue: Wave Pledge Change / Upgrade Request
    First response: 12 hours
    Assigned: Manny
    Responses to Resolution: 1
    Total Time to Resolution: 12 hours
    Resolution: Pledge changed as requested. LH more than fair and allowed pricing/options from time of initial request instead of then unavailable options.
 
4) Issue: Pulse to Vi DAC Upgrade Request
    First response: 6 days
    Assigned: Tami and Manny
    Responses to Resolution: 4
    Total Time to Resolution: 17 days
    Resolution: Frustrating initial responses, but more than fair end result after some back and forth. Restored some faith that LH does still care about customers, not JUST money.
 
5) Issue: Verb/Verb-X Survey/Shipment Question
    First response: 12 hours
    Assigned: Stephanie
    Responses to Resolution: 1
    Total Time to Resolution: 12 hours
    Resolution: System showed I had ordered balanced version only and not to worry. Unbalanced version showed up in mail 2 days later, so issue will be readdressed.
 
My intent here is to show that the system does work, even for the average person, just slowly and with more customer input than I would expect for a company building their business around the "crowd". To get past the inevitable one line generic response of late, I've broken my arguments down into numbered lists and requested responses to each point so that nothing is overlooked, avoiding extra delay. Manny has been more than fair on multiple issues, has gone out of his way to give me more than I expected, and has given me a positive perception of the integrity that LH has as a business. It certainly seems that he's being overworked to the point of inefficiency for being such a vital part of their customer service team. You guys need more Mannys!

 

[DiscoSmoke]

No it's a separate issue. The floating ground is just for DAC recognition, not necessarily the buzzing sound between the USB and 12 V out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRSxmE-FPDU

If the LPS4's USB output is ungrounded, and you're using it to power a Geek Out that's feeding another grounded device, this is exactly where the ground loop is originating.

 

[Ultimate Mango]

If you think this is bad the Geek wave stuff is even worse, with the reboot and product split and even more crazy train perk upgrades over time. By the time I get a product, it will not actually have the functionality I paid for. In total it will be a complete waste of hundreds of dollars.

The pulse, well, I probably should have received mine a while ago. If it weren't for the massive quality control issues I would be pretty upset that I didn't already get mine.

 

[miceblue]

By the time I get a product, it will not actually have the functionality I paid for. In total it will be a complete waste of hundreds of dollars.

And what makes you think that will happen?

 

[Ultimate Mango]

And what makes you think that will happen?

Because this was confirmed by Manny and the crowd design process decisions put a nail in the metaphorical coffin. I backed the very first campaign for a portable dac/amp with iOS compatibility and a long battery life. Then campaigns split and design decisions were made and refunds were not an option despite my specific request for one. As it is I will be given the choice between the wave and stream but neither have the battery life I was looking for and if I get the stream I will have paid many times what it is worth. My only hope will be to resell the wave to get my money out of that campaign.
Buyer beware but I take no responsibility for LHL changing the product to be something other than what I paid for.

 

[Mannytorres]

Nudd Said:
 
"Over in the Wave thread, somebody has apparently had a message from Manny that the max gain of the Wave with the iem mod and the normal wave is not the same. This is not consistent with what Casey has said previously. Despite invocations to @Mannytorres I do not believe this issue has been addressed yet"
 
I see where i have missed the mark on this one Nudd and i do apologize for this one, I didn't see in the question that the "Wave IEM" perk was asked, (this was not made clear to us in the question) I had defaulted to the IEM earbuds that we were currently shipping (Which are as you said, i said is 450Mw).
 
"So for things like the wave survey - where the hell is it!? Come on. If you can release more perks, then make sure you got that survey system fixed guys!"
 
This may seem like a easy process because all you have to do is answer the survey, The good news is that this is totally going out to our backers VERY shortly  
 
I am glad we are venting all of this Nudd, I do agree we are all human beings and not "PERFECT" as you put in your post, but isn't that why as you said there were special exceptions.
 
I do hope you contact me, it would seem that this is what you would like in general is better communication from us.

 

[nudd]

Nudd - All totally valid criticisms with a productive focus on how to make things better. Well done. Agree with your points and concerns.

And I assume the second half of your first paragraph was a bit tongue-in-cheek?

Cheers

 
Yes, tongue-in-cheek ...
 
 
 
 
 
or was it? 

 

[pedalhead]

Off on a slight tangent for a moment.... Just received the following email update for the Alpha Prime backers...

"Alpha Prime Backers

We’ve submitted our PO to MrSpeakers and expect to receive the bulk shipment in-house within a few weeks time. Our shipping team has already compiled the list of backers and will begin fulfilling orders as quickly as possible. "

Good to see things moving quickly, but some of us are we wondering about a couple of things.

First, the custom colour mentioned in the mail out a while back "...MrSpeakers Alpha Prime, in a custom LH Labs color...". Call me a tart, but this was the clincher for me to jump on the APs.

Secondly, there would appear to be overwhelming support for the APs to be shipped with balanced cables...but no word from LH on this either.

Could we please have an update from LH on these items? We also have a discussion running in the LH forum here... http://lhlabs.com/force/hpa/3626-alpha-prime-custom-colour

 

[nudd]

  Nudd Said:
 
"Over in the Wave thread, somebody has apparently had a message from Manny that the max gain of the Wave with the iem mod and the normal wave is not the same. This is not consistent with what Casey has said previously. Despite invocations to @Mannytorres I do not believe this issue has been addressed yet"
 
I see where i have missed the mark on this one Nudd and i do apologize for this one, I didn't see in the question that the "Wave IEM" perk was asked, (this was not made clear to us in the question) I had defaulted to the IEM earbuds that we were currently shipping (Which are as you said, i said is 450Mw).
 
"So for things like the wave survey - where the hell is it!? Come on. If you can release more perks, then make sure you got that survey system fixed guys!"
 
This may seem like a easy process because all you have to do is answer the survey, The good news is that this is totally going out to our backers VERY shortly
 
I am glad we are venting all of this Nudd, I do agree we are all human beings and not "PERFECT" as you put in your post, but isn't that why as you said there were special exceptions.
 
I do hope you contact me, it would seem that this is what you would like in general is better communication from us.

 
@Mannytorres I am not the one expecting people to be perfect. LHL seems to be the one from my perspective expective people to be perfect, at least in the case of dfu updates ... (which is the context where I made that point).
 
But I would appreciate if you could answer for the benefit of us all the actual questions though.
 
1. Wave IEM and Wave power output
 
When you replied about the input power of the Verb (in the WAVE thread), you were immediately asked to clarify what is the OUTPUT power of the Wave IEM and the Wave. Would you mind responding?
 
2. Survey
 
Very soon for ages. When is it out?
 
3. Survey
 
Why still pushing the perks when your survey system is not complete yet? If it is to complete VERY SOON, why not just hold off on the new perks until the VERY SOON happens before pushing new perks?
 
4. Pulse and New ESS Chip
 
Testing. Numbers. Larry can't wait to share! Please enlighten us. Only 1 day left. Still no info.
 
5. DFU Update
 
Why no sanity checking? Why? Will you be happy to make an exception if we are less than perfect and accidentally upload the wrong firmware (less than 5% of the time)? If not, then again, why no sanity checking? I would appreciate a technical answer rather than "the firmware is located on different parts of the LHL website".
 
Sure it's on different parts of the LHL website, but I will likely download it into the same folder!
 
6. Transferable warranty
 
Last I heard offering this was a contentious issue still being discussed internally. What is the result?

 

[uzi]

 
ok, back to the music:
anyone HAVE a Pulse Xfi in house and can share (more) initial impressions? 

 

  will my house do ?
have it, love it, love it A LOT !  i had planned on letting it go, now due to some unforeseen circumstances, it may be a while before it leaves here, i'm all broke up about it too ! 

 
Like @jaywillin, I'm liking what I hear with the Pulse Xfi.  The things I've noticed with the sound versus my existing setups are that the drums sound much better, the bass has a little more kick and fullness and there's a slight improvement to soundstage.  The two headphones I immediately noticed it most on were two of the headphones I use the most -- the HE-500 and the UERM.  All my listening is with the FTM (Femto) mode.
 
At home the Xfi+LPS is up against the HRT Musicstreamer II+ and Burson Soloist.  While I felt that the Geek Out was similar in level to the MS II+ as a DAC (with a slight victory to the MS II+ in terms of soundstage), the Xfi is another story.  The Xfi's DAC is a clear victor to me for reasons stated above.  As an amp, comparing it to the $1000 Soloist (when using the Xfi as the DAC to the Soloist versus the Xfi straight), it's a much closer battle and I haven't picked a winner yet.  What I do know is that I have three working inputs on the Burson, and I use them all...
 
... I've stated previously about the problems I've had with dropouts on both the SDPIF and Toslink interfaces.  I've put in a ticket with LHLabs and will keep you guys posted.  I'd also love to hear if other people are able to use those inputs successfully.  Having only the USB working limits the Xfi for me a little.
 
At work, the second Xfi I purchased is up against an Audio-gd NFB-12.  When using the DT770 Pro 80, the differences aren't as pronounced, but the Xfi is definitely better.  With the UERM, it's a very noticeable difference, even just in the drums where they sound muddy on the NFB-12 and crisp with the Xfi.
 
Other things to note are just some weirdnesses in behavior.  I've had some cases where the volume knob, while responding to the volume change on the display didn't actually change the volume.  Or the time things sounded really distant, tinny and awful.  Both of those were cured by a power cycle, so no big deal, but there's still clearly some firmware issues to iron out.  I don't think the gain select affects the RCA outs -- or maybe they do and I need to retest.  It'd be nice, even with controlling the volume by knob if it still honored the system mute.
 
All in all, I'm happy with the devices and hoping to work with LHLabs on fixing the problems.  Related: LHLabs folks -- if not fixed sooner, there's a day coming up in April where I could come by with my gear and demonstrate the issues I'm seeing.