Geek Pulse: Geek desktop DAC/AMP by Light Harmonics

[smial1966]

"Oh you tart!"  

 
Below the LH Labs custom color chart courtesy of MrSpeakers -
 

 
 Which color will LH Labs choose?!? 
 
Quote:

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

 

[wingsounds13]

Hey Nudd, do you not understand the concept?? Your point 3. about perks and the upcoming survey...

The survey is for verifying that the record that LH Labs has of perks ALREADY BACKED match what you and your records think. It will also verify that all are fully paid for, or rather that the amount that LH Labs has received from your campaign perks backed matches the total cost of perks backed.

The campaign and perks offered are where you back (or in the common but incorrect terms "buy") items and upgrades. LH Labs is still adding perks because they have come up with new product and upgrade offerings, often ideas requested by the Geek Force and even here in this bitch fest. If you want more products and/or features, you back the perks in the campaign. The survey is to validate, NOT add products or upgrades.

Or are you just being argumentative for arguments sake? If so, this is not helpful to anyone.

J.P.

 

[pedalhead]

 

 
haha I predicted you'd appear after I posted that 

 

[nudd]

Hey Wingsounds that is absolutely correct. But if they are unable to come up with a system that confirms what has actually been backed (as evidenced by the shipping of xfi instead of infinities) what is the assurance that they can track the status of backers of perks in the current campaigns?

If they dont have any assurance that they have a system that reliably tracks customers perks and they have a new system coming out soon, why cause even more chaos to their current tracking system?

I am not trying to deliberately be unhelpful. I just want to know they know what i have BACKED or will in future BACK.

Thanks

Hey Nudd, do you not understand the concept?? Your point 3. about perks and the upcoming survey...

The survey is for verifying that the record that LH Labs has of perks ALREADY BACKED match what you and your records think. It will also verify that all are fully paid for, or rather that the amount that LH Labs has received from your campaign perks backed matches the total cost of perks backed.

The campaign and perks offered are where you back (or in the common but incorrect terms "buy") items and upgrades. LH Labs is still adding perks because they have come up with new product and upgrade offerings, often ideas requested by the Geek Force and even here in this bitch fest. If you want more products and/or features, you back the perks in the campaign. The survey is to validate, NOT add products or upgrades.

Or are you just being argumentative for arguments sake? If so, this is not helpful to anyone.

J.P.

 

[smial1966]

I'm becoming too predictable! Still, it's a diversion from the thread angst. 

 
Quote:

   
haha I predicted you'd appear after I posted that 

 

[jaywillin]

   
 
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.

the dac i have on hand right now for direct comparison the modi 2u, hardly fair, the pulse much more extended bass, sweeter(but not "sweet) or maybe smooth is a better word, but great detail
mids are more detailed, it's more detailed to bottom really, soundstage and imaging both greatly improved, now from memory,which isn't reliable, the pulse i think is better than the wadia 121 i had, i can definitely say the soundstage is better
 
i don't know for sure, but can't spdif and toslink cables themselves cause dropouts ?   
 
i had this happen for the first time last night, it occurred after i had been messing with some of the settings, and yes a power cycle fixed the issue, no, line out not effected by gain settings on my pulse.

 

[jaywillin]

oh, and i must call gavin and the gang to task on one issue that REALLY griped my a**, the shoddy, "unofficial" shipping box, the temp fix box just so i could get my unit sooner due to the port authority issue ? please, at the price i paid, the pulse x/f/i should have been hand delivered from across the country by lhlabs themselves ! , load up the station wagon and hit the road i say !
 i mean pink foam and bubble wrap and a slapped on sticker ? , really ??  i almost fell out  
 
the evidence is as follows :
 
notice the loose fit  , EDIT - there's that sticker

 

 
i want my pretty black custom made foam packing (was casey over in the corner with a pair of scissors?)

 
 
 
 
 
disclaimer:
this post is indeed a joke guys

 

[uncola]

edit:  NEVERMIND it was a joke!  *swoosh* joke flying over my head

 

[jaywillin]

  edit:  NEVERMIND it was a joke!  *swoosh* joke flying over my head

gotta watch for the fine print !  

 

[manualvin]

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:

• 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).
• 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.

Well geek pulse is shipping to me instead of geek pulse Infiniti and they acknowledged its a mixup and asked me to reject shipment. At point of receiving the shipping notice it was still in USA and not possible to recall. My suggestion is to check with the receiver first before shipping if possible as I understand with the different perks it can be difficult to keep track of what is the final ordered selection.

 

[AxelCloris]

Just a heads up to folks, lhlabs.com appears to be having some trouble at the moment. You can still access the support page at support.lhlabs.com if you're checking/entering tickets.
 
Edit: And we're back in business.

 

[Maelob]

Glad to hear the xfi sounds good, still concerned about the possible volume and firmware issues. i am planning to run it as a pre amp so volume control is really important. hopefully they get fixed. still have my fingers crossed.

 

[Muinarc]

 
I'm a Vi/Soul backer and opted to still receive the Pulse, but I have not received it yet. I actually ordered one Pulse Xfi and one Pulse X∞ and I'm hoping to receive the Pulse Xfi soon!

 


Oh well I guess I'll just see if a random email for shipment pops up one day. It will be interesting to see which one of your 2 you get first

 

[greenkiwi]

 
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?

 
4 and 5 are very important, particularly 5.
 
The DFU/device should do everything it can to prevent the wrong files from being loaded.  The "well, you'd have to be stupid to load the wrong file" is not the correct answer.  Many users aren't computer experts... and clicking on the wrong file can happen quite easily.

 

[NightDayAudio]

   
Spoke too soon!  I asked for it to be added and was immediately told that it's already in there.  Here's what the manual says:
 
 
*** IMPORTANT NOTE ***

When the Geek Pulse is turned on and off there will be a popping noise sent through the headphone output, as well as all line outputs. These are the power caps in the signal chain charging and discharging. This is a conscious design decision to not add a buffer as it would affect the sound quality.
 
It is recommended that the Geek Pulse be left on at all times as it will keep the components warm, providing the optimal sound quality. However, if a power off/cycle is required, be sure to unplug headphones and/or power down the preamp/amp/active speakers to avoid any potential damage.
 
LH Labs will not be held responsible for any damage to equipment due to this design implementation.
 

 
 
So you highly recommend to leave the unit turned on 24/7, yet absolve yourself from any responsibility if doing that very thing causes issues?  Huh?  
 
The US power grid is not perfect.... brownouts, surges, quick half second off/on flips, power outages, etc. do occur... for some, they occur multiple times a day depending on the weather and time of year...  this is not a new phenomenon.... it's well documented and common knowledge....
 
So knowing this, and knowing that it could happen at any time, it removes the ability for users to do controlled shutdowns and start up, and remove the headphones from being connected while this is happening.  
 
As a result, you don't knowingly design a component that can have issues on power up/power down if not done in a certain order or with other devices connected to it.  That's just bad design, plain and simple.  
 
 
You may want to amend the manual and say that it is a requirement that all LH Labs components need to be connected to a UPS to avoid equipment damage due to unintended power cycles and you aren't responsible for any damage where the equipment isn't connected to your approved list of UPS units.  You can sell a Pulse UPS to prevent damage and generate more revenue.  Tongue firmly in cheek on that one...
 
for all the technical expertise that supposedly exists, a dose of common sense seems to be lacking in many respects.....