i missed this, you have received a pulse ??
No, but I've heard the Pulse Xfi/LPS combo in a non-controlled environment and I really enjoyed what I heard. I own the GO SE which is pretty much a mini Pulse fi.
Sorry... I misread your original post. When you said "other options that require additional funds" I thought that you were referring to the USB cables.
That was what I was saying at the time. A Pulse with an LPS and a single USB will sound fine. You'll get a marginal upgrade by adding a second USB to the equation and you'll get a marginal upgrade over that using an even higher bandwidth USB cable like the 2G. The "other options" will sound better but will cost more. And in the realm of high end audio most improvements are subtle.