[Decoy]

I have to say that I'm not really in love pictures of the new chassis.  However, I wasn't expecting much from the old chassis, but when it arrived, I was really struck by how much better it looks in person.  So I urge people to reserve judgment.  Although, I have to say that I think the Vi DAC looks absolutely terrible.  It is so tacky.
 
My HiFiMAN HE-1000 finally arrived and it sounds absolutely fantastic with the Pulse Infinity.  I can't wait to hear these cans through the Geek Tube Amp, although, I will probably have to wait a while before it ships.  But for anyone who is interested in the HE-1000 + Infinity + LPS combination, it can drive it as well as any DAC/amp combo out there.  I took my rig over to my local hifi shop and the staff were all really shocked at how well these paired. 

 
I have to hand it to the whole LH Labs team, the Infinity can really hang with the big boys.

 

[pedalhead]

  still no didit comparison?

 
I've been busy focused on other things recently.  I do intend to play with it some more next week though 

 

[doctorjazz]

Ahhh, have the HE 1K, waiting on the Vi Tube SE or Infinite or whatever they're calling it, sounds like it will be great whenever that is...

 

[miceblue]

Yup I agree that the X Infinity/HE1000 combo sounds great. I think it's mostly due to the superb DAC section though.

 

[Narayan23]

I have a Pulse XFI, can´t make any comparisons since it´s my first DAC but the sound is very very good through my HD598 and Dynaudio Excite X12, I can´t stop listening to music!! 
 
That being said the old and new chassis are not particularly good looking, It probably has been said 1000 times but it was we the backers who decided on the first chassis design which when you have it sitting on your desk is not that bad...but for the prices LHLabs is asking and to be competitive, design should certainly be better. I would probably pick the new chassis if only for the option of a bigger more legible screen, at more than 2m from the XFI you have to be in a dark room to read the current display correctly.

 

[taz23]

Hi guys, I just faced a problem with my Xfi that I received 2 days ago, and I wondering if there is any advice from you.

I do not get sound from the rear XLR ports when using SPDIF (both 1 and 2). The XLR ports work when using USB input. This only just happened, as everything was working fine for the past two nights.

More interestingly, when the rear XLR plugs are connected, the frontal outputs do not have sound (muted) until the rear XLR are disconnected. This is on SPDIF input.

Many thanks! Otherwise, the sound has been improving with the burn-in. It seems to me that this is a firmware issue and not hardware since the rear XLR works on USB.

Edit: the issue has now disappeared.

I was able to replicate the problem today. I also noticed that when the music is playing from SPDIF, the music will be muted upon connecting the USB cable to my laptop. Music resumes once the USB cable is disconnected. Grounding issues?

 

[krikor]

I was able to replicate the problem today. I also noticed that when the music is playing from SPDIF, the music will be muted upon connecting the USB cable to my laptop. Music resumes once the USB cable is disconnected. Grounding issues?

I've been wondering the same thing. The one-channel muted glitch and oscillating helicopter-like noise glitch occurs depending upon whether or not my XLR balanced preamp is on/off when powering up the Pulse X. But it doesn't seem to be consistent, at least as far as I've been able to tell so far.

 

[kenman345]

  I've been wondering the same thing. The one-channel muted glitch and oscillating helicopter-like noise glitch to occur depending upon whether or not my XLR balanced preamp is on/off when powering up the Pulse X. But it doesn't seem to be consistent, at least as far as I've been able to tell so far.

I wish I were able to test this but have no items that accept the XLR's from the back as inputs. Can you guys try and keep everyone informed if an actual defect was found that would affect everyones units? Thanks

 

[krikor]

  Yes, I'd like some details on this as well. Specifically:

1. Are the singled-ended RCA line outs simply tapped off the non-inverted leg of the XLR balanced line outs, or are they separately buffered? Can I use both at once with no degradation?
2. Ditto on the headphone outputs... though I don't see ever having two sets of cans plug into the thing.

 
I apologize if perhaps this has been covered somewhere in the myriad posts here and on LH Labs' forum.

 
Opened a ticket regarding the use of both RCA and XLR line outputs at the same time and got this response from Manny:
 
Thank you for your time, the design are in fact separated and buffered. This is not tapped on the + leg of the XLR. This in turn will not effect the impedance since it is separated and buffered on a fully dual-mono topology so both can be run simultaneously. Again thank you for your time and support. 

 

[earfonia]

Finally I received my Pulse XFi last June after waiting for around 1.5 years 

Though I was not impressed by my Geek Out 450 sound quality, I do really like the sound quality of the Pulse XFi. But I would reserve detail impressions until I'm quite familiar with it's sound signature. But I do like what I hear so far.
 
One question, is there any way to bypass the volume control for the line output? Instead of setting the volume to 0 dB, is there any shortcut to bypass the volume control?
 
Sorry if this has been asked before, this thread has 553 pages which is make it difficult to find the answer within that 553 pages.
 
Thank you!

 

[miceblue]

One question, is there any way to bypass the volume control for the line output? Instead of setting the volume to 0 dB, is there any shortcut to bypass the volume control?

Nope....it's a variable line-output because the volume is digitally-controlled, which is unfortunate. I wish it was a fixed 2 Vrms output for the RCA outs.

 

[SilverTrumpet999]

Nope....it's a variable line-output because the volume is digitally-controlled, which is unfortunate. I wish it was a fixed 2 Vrms output for the RCA outs.

The 'volume' control is electronic. 0dB is bypassed, where no attenuation occurs. There is no need for a bypass, as there is no circuitry to bypass.

Bypasses like this are only relevant in the analog domain. You have to think digitally here

 

[earfonia]

Nope....it's a variable line-output because the volume is digitally-controlled, which is unfortunate. I wish it was a fixed 2 Vrms output for the RCA outs.

 

The 'volume' control is electronic. 0dB is bypassed, where no attenuation occurs. There is no need for a bypass, as there is no circuitry to bypass.

Bypasses like this are only relevant in the analog domain. You have to think digitally here

 
Noted thanks!
 
It is irritating when switching from the XFi build-in headphone amp to external headphone amp, have to adjust the volume. I prefer to have a bypass function for line out like in my Mytek and Yulong DA8.
 
Is the 0 dB is really by passing the digital volume control or it is just maximum volume? The reason I ask is due to the nature of DSD signal that cannot be adjusted by digital volume. If 0 dB is not bypassing digital volume control, that means DSD signal converted to multi bits, go to digital volume control, then converted back to bit stream. I prefer to avoid the DSD signal conversion to multi bits for direct and pure DSD conversion.

 

[miceblue]

Is the 0 dB is really by passing the digital volume control or it is just maximum volume? The reason I ask is due to the nature of DSD signal that cannot be adjusted by digital volume. If 0 dB is not bypassing digital volume control, that means DSD signal converted to multi bits, go to digital volume control, then converted back to bit stream. I prefer to avoid the DSD signal conversion to multi bits for direct and pure DSD conversion.

0 dB means the signal is bit-perfect, there is no digital attenuation to the signal.

The DAC used is a multi-bit Delta-Sigma modulator, so yes, a 1-bit DSD signal is converted to a multi-bit DS-signal. I don't think it does single-bit DS modulation. On second thought, I have no idea if 0 dB means it doesn't go though the multi-bit DS modulator.

 

[earfonia]

0 dB means the signal is bit-perfect, there is no digital attenuation to the signal.

The DAC used is a multi-bit Delta-Sigma modulator, so yes, a 1-bit DSD signal is converted to a multi-bit DS-signal. I don't think it does single-bit DS modulation. On second thought, I have no idea if 0 dB means it doesn't go though the multi-bit DS modulator.

 
That's what I would like to know as well 

Will it automatically bypass the multi-bit conversion or not. Which I think, it is still go through the multi-bit conversion. Bypass usually another feature, not done automatic at 0 dB.