Geek Pulse: Geek desktop DAC/AMP by Light Harmonics

[nudd]

Jody it would only be fair to say up front that you work for LHL but your views are your own.

Especially when you are talking here about how someone should have behaved as a matter of integrity and ethics.

By not so disclosing you are opening yourself to the same issue you are accusing Lachlan of: making statements about a state of affairs in an inappropriate manner. By not disclosing you employment relationship you are not giving people sufficient information to form a view as to how to read your postings on this forum.

In his case you say he should not have leveled accusations about LH Labs integrity but your own conduct brings me to question just how you could think as a matter of basic fairness that it is okay to be employed by LHL, make these types of pro LHL posts and not even think that you should disclose your role at LHL?

Since you think it is okay to rant, here is the part I begin my own biased rant about CS that i really just want to get out of my system:

With regard to the things you say he should have done he opened a support ticket and waited three days without any response. I think three days is more than long even a wait time that you should get at least an email from someone that the issue is being looked at, right? If someone had responded and said even "we are looking at this", I believe he would have reported this. But oh noes if you reply the ticket autocloses after 2 days (does it still do that, by the way, that is the stupidest thing ever). So how is it fair that LHL thinks it is fair to assume issues are magically resolved on the customers side if the customer does not respond after 2 days, but you think it is fair to keep the customer waiting for three days without responding to their support requests?

You also say he should have waited until LHL resolved the issue - how long do you think he should have waited? How long did it take for LHL to release a new firmware after people complained that the Geek Out defaulting to max volume was killing their headphones?

Yes, I am. However, I have been a customer of LH Labs far longer than I have worked for them, and I reserve my time on Head-Fi to be a place to express my own views, not those of the company.

With regards to the video, am I biased? Maybe a little. However, I do stand by what I wrote.

Did Lachlan have a right to say what he did? Of course he did. It is the way he went about it I take issue with.

He should have searched the Geek Forum (and maybe Head-Fi for thoroughness) to see if anyone else was having the issue, opened a support ticket for it (this part he did), and waited for LH to resolve the issue before uploading a “first impressions” video.

If he had done so, he would have found that he is the only person thus far to report this issue (if anyone else is having this issue, please open a support ticket immediately so the issue can be looked into to determine if it is a more systematic design/manufacturing issue).

If after taking the time to report about true first impressions he wanted to include details about the issue and the resolution process (including that this is a singular issue thus far), by all means do so.

With regard to the speculations, how about asking the company for the correct current numbers to counter balance the hearsay from outsiders?

However, he did not do that. He uploaded a video creating another “panic” about the quality of the Pulse, and intimating LH Labs does not operate above board, thus souring the company in the view of many of his subscribers without just cause.

With regards to Levanter’s post about taking the video seriously, I take it very seriously. I am a Pulse Xfi backer myself, and want to see all units delivered issue free. The issue with his Pulse, while singular, is very serious and is being handled like any other support issue.

As much as many of the people here have been frustrated with some of the things the company does/has done, I have too. However, instead of sitting behind my keyboard and complaining about it, or going so far as to make outlandish accusations, I took the initiative to do something about it.

I spoke to Larry, Gavin, and Casey at RMAF about joining the support team to help with getting things where they need to be. And in the meantime others have been hired as well. Tami, Manny, and Stephanie have been doing a great job of keeping up with the deluge of tickets that comes in. And based on the feedback I have received from customers (some of you on this thread), I seem to be doing a decent job as well.

I am not claiming things are perfect, and I am not trying to minimize the fact that there are issues that need to be addressed as soon as possible, but steps have been taken to turn the tide and get things to where they should be. It will not be an overnight change, but we will get there.

With regards to the issues with the Pulse and LPS (firmware, etc), work is being done to fix them, and to try to minimize any future issues. Before filling the forums with complaints and accusations, take the time to educate yourself on the product development lifecycle, and the timeframes/challenges involved with taking a product from idea to market, and be realistic with your expectations.

Sorry for the rant. Again, these are my opinions, NOT those of LH Labs. If anyone wants to discuss this further, please pm me rather than de-railing the thread further.

Jody

 

[jbr1971]

Jody it would only be fair to say up front that you work for LHL but your views are your own.

Especially when you are talking here about how someone should have behaved as a matter of integrity and ethics.

By not so disclosing you are opening yourself to the same issue you are accusing Lachlan of: making statements about a state of affairs in an inappropriate manner. By not disclosing you employment relationship you are not giving people sufficient information to form a view as to how to read your postings on this forum.

In his case you say he should not have leveled accusations about LH Labs integrity but your own conduct brings me to question just how you could think as a matter of basic fairness that it is okay to be employed by LHL, make these types of pro LHL posts and not even think that you should disclose your role at LHL?

Since you think it is okay to rant, here is the part I begin my own biased rant about CS that i really just want to get out of my system:

With regard to the things you say he should have done he opened a support ticket and waited three days without any response. I think three days is more than long even a wait time that you should get at least an email from someone that the issue is being looked at, right? If someone had responded and said even "we are looking at this", I believe he would have reported this. But oh noes if you reply the ticket autocloses after 2 days (does it still do that, by the way, that is the stupidest thing ever). So how is it fair that LHL thinks it is fair to assume issues are magically resolved on the customers side if the customer does not respond after 2 days, but you think it is fair to keep the customer waiting for three days without responding to their support requests?

You also say he should have waited until LHL resolved the issue - how long do you think he should have waited? How long did it take for LHL to release a new firmware after people complained that the Geek Out defaulting to max volume was killing their headphones?

 
I had not been given any purview to post as a LH employee, so I did not disclose it. The opinions are my own, as a LH backer, and should be viewed as such.
 
Until last night I had done a good job of not commenting on “hot button” topics, however that one elicited the response it did.
 
I no longer own his case, so I do not know where it stands. However, he should have emailed into the case asking for an update if he had concerns, and waited for a new replacement unit before posting a “first impressions” video.
 
Tickets do not auto close. I do not know if they did before I started, but I know they do not now.
 
I was not around for the issues with the Geek Out, and his issue is not firmware related, which makes the GO reference irrelevant.

 

[Anaximandros]

Easy guys.
 
But just FYI. Why is the first impressions video not appropriate? It was his first impression of the Pulse.
I don't want to dig in further, but he had every right to do so, even without having a replacement unit.

 

[mikey1964]

  How does the amp section of the pulse sound compared to the vali?

The Vali is for my one of my other rigs, I have four rigs and I have three that have either dac/amp combos or stack, the Vali is for my last system w/o a dac/amp combo/stack. So far, I've been messing around with the Pulse and I can say that I find nothing truly wrong with it. I do take the precaution of powering up the Pulse w/o my cans plugged in, after a couple of minutes, I'd plug in my can. I tested it a few times with my ultra cheap Philips headphones (got it free with Philips monitor purchase), I don't hear a pop or sound related issue. In fact. with the Philips headphones plugged in, I powered on the unit and I do hear a soft pop, much like the sound some amps or dac/amps would emit immediately upon powering up. But nothing that would damage a can, still, I'm playing it safe and would only plug my cans in after it's warmed up. Volume level stayed the same level as when it was last switched off.
 
Unfortunately, due to all this bad press, I'm somewhat fearful of damaging one of my more expensive cans, so I'll always use the Philips can to test before plugging in my HE400i or K812, or any of my other cans. LED display seems alright, not exactly bright (or rather, not as bright as I'd have liked it) with no flickering at all. Still, it's early days and I'm still testing it, but thus far, the unit looks solid, listening to some DSD64 tracks with my HE400i as I type this post.....

 

[senorx12562]

   
Wow, that video was beyond irresponsible. I don't care how many followers you have on social media.
 
I keep up with all of the Geek threads on Head-fi, and keep up with most of the Geek Forum, and this is the first report I have seen for this issue.
 
Sure, it sucks his Pulse has an issue, and support is looking into it (as he said). But to question the integrity of a company and make wild speculations based on that and posts on a forum, is ridiculous.
 
Try doing some proper research and fact checking, without any ridiculous speculations first, then grab your video camera.
 
When you are a blogger that accepts money to buy products to review, you have a responsibility to have some journalistic sense and integrity imo.

I believe it is exactly the opposite. His taking donations to fund his reviews obligates him to do exactly as he did. Tell the truth. If he's being paid by LH to advertise their product, that's different. and if that is true, then Lachlan is of very little use to me. I can just look at the ads on stereophile.com if that's what I want. Are you insinuating that what he said wasn't true? If so, I expect to see some substantiation. If not, then I just totally disagree with you.

 

[senorx12562]

  +1. I actually commented these thoughts right into it. I have a perfectly working GO1000 and LPS, and unlike this guy, audio companies seek me out and send me review units, because they know I won't pull stupid, irresponsible BS like this. Who reviews a defective product without getting a replacement? An amatuer with no integrity and a video camera will.

What responsible manufacturer sends out a defective unit, which this clearly was since it ruined a pair of headphones. 

 

[senorx12562]

Totally agree. He's free to say whatever he likes as an individual, but as a compensated reviewer there is a different bar/standard.

And if he thinks he should be on his high horse just because his ticket is three days old...

The question is by whom is he being paid.

 

[senorx12562]

  I'm surprised by all the reaction to the video. I read the comments before watching the video and I was expecting to see some serious crap going on.
 
But not once did he suggest that the Pulse was crap in any sense of the word. Not once did he suggest that all units have this issue. In fact, I think it's pretty clear that he gave the benefit of the doubt by suggesting that his unit was an anomaly rather than the norm.  I think it's wrong to even call his video a review. If you've seen his channel before, he clearly labels video reviews as being 'reviews'. There was none on the video.
 
He experienced a very loud popping noise on his Geek Pulse. He reported it accordingly. That's the end of story.
 
I've owned some of the gear that he's reviewed in the past ,and I don't necessarily agree with all his findings (coincidentally, the Takstar Pro build quality was one of the few things with which II outrightly disagreed with him), but that doesn't make his videos 'irresponsible' or 'crap' or 'BS'. I continue to watch his videos because he strikes me as someone who is honest with his thoughts on his reviewed gear. He always does follow ups to his initial impressions, and corrects findings when the need calls for it. Just because he mentioned something remotely negative about the Pulse doesn't mean he won't get a perfectly working replacement unit, and review it positively afterwards (which I'm certain of given how the Pulse seems to be beyond reproach sonically).
 
It's just a matter of opinion and I don't get why some people get so touchy and so angsty about it.

+1

 

[senorx12562]

   
I watched the video twice, and I realized the first time I watched that he was commenting about his IGG Pulse.
 
My biggest issue I guess is the speculation and hearsay he reports about failure rates.
 
Then he adds more speculation about whether the company’s business practices are fraudulant.
 
While this is his own Pulse, he is “paid” to review many other things. Given that, I stand by my comments about journalistic standards and integrity, given that he has a lot of viewers that could be potentially influenced by such shabby reporting.

So telling the truth is shabby reporting? Really? I'm confused, as usual.

 

[evillamer]

Although there are some youtubers who may resort to sensationalism to drive up viewership(i.e. Iphone 6 bendgate). I don' believe Lachlan is trying to do a #popgate on LH here. He has also in the past highlighted issues with his Sony MDR-Z7.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgCAWGNjZEk
 
Instead of questioning and bashing the youtuber/customer/funder, a good company will provide no quibble 1 for 1 replacement for the faulty product quickly by posting a reply to Lachlan on youtube. Public Relations 101.
 
"Dear XXX, We are sorry to hear about your troubles with our product. Please contact us @ xxx to arrange for a replacement unit..."
 
It's only LH who has to lose if this QC/Design issues goes out of hand.

 

[miceblue]

For me the biggest advantage of the new chip is the separate digital/analogue ground, but nobody knows how big the advantage that is until we put it in actual device.

Where did you hear that from? Oh never mind, it's on the Wave's Indiegogo activities tab.

A Note About the Cost

If you're up on such nerdiness, you may have already learned that the new 9018AQ2M is not pin compatible with the 9018M. This means we have to do a lot more than just switch out DACs. First, we need to do some re-routing on the PCB. Second, we have to add 4 C0G capacitors to the circuit because there are more pins on the new DAC chip that need to be decoupled.

What's the benefit of the new chip?

Great question.

With the latest architecture, ESS separated the analog and digital ground planes from one another (hence the need for more pins). By doing this, the SNR and the THD+N characteristics of the DAC are drastically improved. Larry's looking forward to show you the test reports.

 

[mikey1964]

I've been experimenting with the Pulse, changing tracks (from DSD to WAV to DSD again), no issue at all. One thing though, LHL should beef up their FAQ section with help on how to get Foobar (or any other player) configured to play DSD tracks and such. To draw from an experience I'd had with iFi, I have the Micro iDSD, I couldn't get Foobar to play nice with the Micro iDSD, I'd posted my frustrations with setting it up, their local rep answered within a day with a step-by-step guide to configuring Foobar......now, that's excellent service. Yes, I do understand that LHL doesn't have local reps in the various countries, so having a clear guide to using the Pulse in the FAQ/Guide section would help. I'd gotten Foobar to play nice with the Pulse after some anxious minutes configuring Foobar while, at the back of my mind, wondering if the unit was defective. A good online guide would definitely alleviate some of the initial anxiety with any new product, especially one that has been plagued with such bad press.

 

[Madeupword]

  I've been experimenting with the Pulse, changing tracks (from DSD to WAV to DSD again), no issue at all. One thing though, LHL should beef up their FAQ section with help on how to get Foobar (or any other player) configured to play DSD tracks and such. To draw from an experience I'd had with iFi, I have the Micro iDSD, I couldn't get Foobar to play nice with the Micro iDSD, I'd posted my frustrations with setting it up, their local rep answered within a day with a step-by-step guide to configuring Foobar......now, that's excellent service. Yes, I do understand that LHL doesn't have local reps in the various countries, so having a clear guide to using the Pulse in the FAQ/Guide section would help. I'd gotten Foobar to play nice with the Pulse after some anxious minutes configuring Foobar while, at the back of my mind, wondering if the unit was defective. A good online guide would definitely alleviate some of the initial anxiety with any new product, especially one that has been plagued with such bad press.

Try LHLabs' geek force forum. I recall there was a thread on it.

 

[gyx11]

I think we should give Jody a break as well. It's clear he will have a greater propensity to be aggrieved than most since it's his own blood and sweat being put into the CS front. I can empathize because he's simply taking pride in what he does, and his job isn't exactly easy. Keep in mind that he proactively seeked a solution to his woes (and for others as well), and at heart he's essentially a backer like all of us.

To move on, I think $22 for the chip upgrade is quite a safe investment. If there's noticeably better measurables, whether or not perceivable, I think we can trust LHL to implement it perfectly. I'm no expert on technical stuff, but I've experienced the infamous Sabre glare in a couple of DACs before. The GO was the best of the lot. Treble never became harsh. I think it's safe to say Larry knows what's best for all things hardware. Most of the upgrades I'll think twice with regards to value, but $22 makes for an easy decision

 

[greenkiwi]

I'm going to be in for the 22 too