[musicheaven]

Yes, I am still very conflicted... Haven't listened anymore since last night and can't wait to get home tonight to listen some more! I feel the need to go through more albums to make a better assessment of the DAC... but man... it's hard to find fault for now. Definitely on honeymoon phase... less than 10 hrs use, let's see if what they say about 100 hrs is true

If you haven't clocked that many hours I'd suggest you sell it now otherwise once you reach it, you won't.

Do try different music genres when it's burned in, it's quite interesting to see how well it handles them all. One thing you need to do early if you can, try all the connections on your DAC, this way if you have any issues you can get that fixed early on before you sell. But really if you want to call it quit, it's a nice DAC you can make your own TOTL.

I just got home and you can bet what I'll do.

Have fun!

 

[mscott58]

  DSD 256 made it to the beta firmware, but there hasn't been a firmware update in a while and regular Joes don't have it. There's also no talk about new firmwares coming any time soon. 
 
Pure DSD, well my friend, many things were talked about a year ago, and many things were talked about 2 years ago. Not so many things, but many dollars later, there are many people still waiting and hoping for some things...

Also the DSD256 beta (which a number of us tested and I currently still use) my sources tell me that it turns out to only be stable on certain variants of the Pulse (specifically the Pulse X Infinity and the Vi) so they've not realized it more widely as they don't want people with different Pulse models loading it and having issues. Still in the works to get it more stable. Cheers 

 

[Lord Raven]

Is SFi getting this beta firmware?
 
Thanks
LR

 

[agisthos]

 
I've had the XFI for over a month, burning it in without powering off, and was hoping the sound would improve... but it's still underwhelming.
 
I can't quantify the sound, but to me it doesn't have any life or meaning. With every audio device before this, I would get lost in the music. Like at home, when I play any song, I'm listening for hours.

 

I actually had the infinity, with an LPS, and trust me I had the same findings as you did.

 
I had the Pulse Infinity and LPS and gave it good amount of break in. Same experience here. I found the sound was clean, low noise, black background, good bass, good soundstage e.t.c but it was lifeless and lacked realism. It sounded like hi-fi, not a high end sound.

There are plenty of people who have the opposite experience. I put it down to these possible reasons...
 
1. Equipment matching / compatibility - This is always a factor, perhaps only certain equipment really gels with the Pulse
 
2. Product variants - There are so many design variants of the Pulse, perhaps certain input and outputs combinations used work better than others with certain downstream equipment
 
3. Bad manufacturing batch - This is certainly a possibility considering what has happened with LHLABS suppliers.
 
4. Experience - How to put this delicately... perhaps some people have not experienced real high end audiophile sound. Many people here on Head-Fi deal in the low price bracket. This is not to say expensive is always better, i have heard plenty of 20k systems that sound garbage, but once you hear true realism in audio its hard to go back to a hifi type of sound.

 

 

[agisthos]

I think the Pulse Infinity + LPS struggles even in its $1500 purchase price range. I would hate to think how average the lower end Pulses are. The hype of this DAC competing with those in the 3-5k price bracket was not true.
 
After the fundraising finished I got a bit worried viewing when Larry Ho's forum comments. It was apparent to me from early on that he was designing from theory, not experience, and that the Pulse and all its design variants were essentially an R&D exercise in finding out what would be the best sound. But at the end we as customers got stuck with these designs.

Maybe his next go at designing a Sabre based DAC will be better, but i do not appreciate being used as a guinea pig and waiting 2 years for product delivery.

 

[zerograin]

I think the Pulse Infinity + LPS struggles even in its $1500 purchase price range. I would hate to think how average the lower end Pulses are. The hype of this DAC competing with those in the 3-5k price bracket was not true.

After the fundraising finished I got a bit worried viewing when Larry Ho's forum comments. It was apparent to me from early on that he was designing from theory, not experience, and that the Pulse and all its design variants were essentially an R&D exercise in finding out what would be the best sound. But at the end we as customers got stuck with these designs.


Maybe his next go at designing a Sabre based DAC will be better, but i do not appreciate being used as a guinea pig and waiting 2 years for product delivery.

Thanks for your input. At first I thought it was just me and I held my criticism.
It does sound better with minor adjustments I've made and using balanced cable. I respect others opinion. But I still feel that it's not worth the amount I paid and time waited. If I could do it again, I wouldn't.
They were good at marketing and they got us good. Never again.

 

[WCDchee]

Thanks for your input. At first I thought it was just me and I held my criticism.
It does sound better with minor adjustments I've made and using balanced cable. I respect others opinion. But I still feel that it's not worth the amount I paid and time waited. If I could do it again, I wouldn't.
They were good at marketing and they got us good. Never again.

I think with the LPS, the most I would consider paying for this sound is 1k. Then again I'm not too certain either, because the mojo just sounds so much better to my ears for so much less.

 

[walfredo]

I've being moving and my Pulse was off for a long while.  I connected it back today.  
 
I connected to my work Mac for convenience.  Apparently the Mac upsamples to the highest frequency the DAC can take.  In the case of the Geek, this is 384K.  Well, much to surprise, the Geek sounds way nicer this way.  I've went back to my PC and, yes, upsampling is clearly better and sending the original sample rate to the Pulse.  The music is smoother, no digital fatigue at all.  Organic and natural.
 
If you have not tried upsampling, give it a try... 

 

[Narayan23]

  I think the Pulse Infinity + LPS struggles even in its $1500 purchase price range. I would hate to think how average the lower end Pulses are. The hype of this DAC competing with those in the 3-5k price bracket was not true.
 
After the fundraising finished I got a bit worried viewing when Larry Ho's forum comments. It was apparent to me from early on that he was designing from theory, not experience, and that the Pulse and all its design variants were essentially an R&D exercise in finding out what would be the best sound. But at the end we as customers got stuck with these designs.

Maybe his next go at designing a Sabre based DAC will be better, but i do not appreciate being used as a guinea pig and waiting 2 years for product delivery.

I understand the frustration with delays and the exasperation over waiting as I too have been there, but to say Larry Ho was designing from theory is rather far fetched, Larry had already designed the Da Vinci DAC well before the Pulse campaign start  http://www.whathifi.com/news/light-harmonic-da-vinci-dac-costs-ps18000  and of course there was R&D, how else can you find what the best sound is? Larry was constantly evaluating clocks, opamps etc. and chose the components he deemed better. We as customers got stuck with the designs we chose, nobody forced me to buy an XFI over a Vanilla Pulse, plus the case work and design was voted for by the backers...I don´t wish to start an argument since LHLabs is not free from fault but I think your criticism regarding Larry is unfair.

 

[agisthos]

I knew Larry designed the Davinci, that what made the Pulse project exciting. But that does not mean he designed all of it, or that he knew what he was doing with a Sabre based design.
 
I followed every forum post be made at LHLABS. He did sound tests with op-amps. But when it came to the analog output stage designs, he even admitted he did not know which would sound best, and that this was a big learning exercise. This part was a paper design. How much of the rest was also a paper design?

The fact the Pulse is not a very good sounding DAC, in the end confirms everything for me.

 

[Maelob]

SQ is relative- sounds wonderful to me driving Balanced alpha primes.

 

[germay0653]

  I knew Larry designed the Davinci, that what made the Pulse project exciting. But that does not mean he designed all of it, or that he knew what he was doing with a Sabre based design.
 
I followed every forum post be made at LHLABS. He did sound tests with op-amps. But when it came to the analog output stage designs, he even admitted he did not know which would sound best, and that this was a big learning exercise. This part was a paper design. How much of the rest was also a paper design?

The fact the Pulse is not a very good sounding DAC, in the end confirms everything for me.

Just can't agree with your assessment that the Pulse is not a very good sounding DAC.  I also own the original Burson Conductor  for which I have both the Sabre and the PCM versions of the internal DAC boards and it's a fine sounding DAC with either board but I feel the Pulse X Infinity is a much better DAC than the Burson.
 
It's your and a few others, not many mind you, opinion, not fact, that feel it's lifeless and there are many more that don't feel that way.  Let's agree to disagree.  If it doesn't work you, so be it, purchase something else that suits your needs and move on.

 

[agisthos]

I should also mention - all my comments RE Pulse sound are the Line stage, not the headphones. Perhaps the phones output is a lot better.

 

[germay0653]

  I should also mention - all my comments RE Pulse sound are the Line stage, not the headphones. Perhaps the phones output is a lot better.

 
agisthos, you're more than welcome to your opinion and if you feel the Pulse doesn't cut it then that's fine.  I've used the headamp and line outs, both balanced and single ended, and it sounds great to me.  Maybe it's just synergy with my equipment and not so with yours.  What I'm really trying to convey is just don't unequivocally state it as fact that it sounds lifeless.   

 

[agisthos]

   
agisthos, you're more than welcome to your opinion and if you feel the Pulse doesn't cut it then that's fine.  I've used the headamp and line outs, both balanced and single ended, and it sounds great to me.  Maybe it's just synergy with my equipment and not so with yours.  What I'm really trying to convey is just don't unequivocally state it as fact that it sounds lifeless.   

 
I stated this clearly in post 11224, which is on this same page, and gave multiple reason why my opinion may be wrong. Your comments act as if this does not exist.