Geek Pulse: Geek desktop DAC/AMP by Light Harmonics

[greenkiwi]

  Not going to lie, the Infinity sounds awesome in my set up. But, my patience ran out plus Amazon return policy is about to expire.
After reading various reviews and impressions, I am looking forward to the Ygg. If the Ygg is on par with the Infinity, I will be more than thrilled. For some reason, I think it will be better.
 
I have until the 31st to return the Infinity. Which gives me close to two weeks to compare to the Ygg when it arrives. I don't have a reference headphone set up. I do have what I think without going mega dollar, the best bang for the buck 2.0 listening room. Parasound P7, Parasound A23, to Ascend Sierra 2. I do have a sub, but the Sierra 2 puts out enough bass, I haven't turned it on.

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the two.

 

[Benny-x]

I find this pretty hard to believe, the Infinity and the GO not sounding much different. I don't have an Infinity, but I got the GO 1K, then the GO Special Edition, which, if I understand correctly, has some of the upgrades that later went into the Infinity (but, with its small size, not all). The GO SE is SO much better than the GO, stopped using the GO 1K as soon as the SE came. Not sure what the issue on your end is, synergy with other components or headphones, or I understand it needs to be running all the time to sound its best, but I don't see how they can be close in sound, from my experience.

That "auditory memory" thing probably comes into play about me comparing them. Maybe what we remember is the feeling vs. the sound? Anyway, find it hard to believe as you may, but I was pretty unsatisfied with the sound of my Infinity. It was really mediocre and costs 5x as much as my GO1K. I'll get the LPS4 back from RMA hopefully in the middle of February or so and then get it connected up in late March. Then I'll be able to compare the full Infinity stack as it was intended to be used. I hope to hear some difference.
 
I haven't done a side by side A/B with the GO1K, so the "feeling" or memory of the sound was what I was basing that comparison off of.
 

I have a GO450 and Pulse Xfi and there's definitely an audible difference in SQ between the two, of course the Xfi being better. But then again, I don't think I've seen any review saying the Pulse Infinity was in the same league as the Yggy either.

I'll wait for it to get all burned in and then have another go at it. Maybe even bring it into the office so I can do an A/B. I expect to hear differences, with the Infinity being better, but so far that's not what I'm getting. Fingers crossed.

 

[doctorjazz]

I haven't heard the Infinity myself, waiting on a Vi Tube Special Edition (or whatever they call it), can't say first hand. I do recall reading that Hifiman used the Infinity at a show to demo the HE-1000. They must have thought it sounded OK
I do empathise with the difficulties dealing with LH Labs, with the frustration over technical glitches, and the feeling of "never doing this again". But, I do think Larry does good sound...

 

[doctorjazz]

 
Here's one set of comments a while back.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/687851/geek-pulse-geek-desktop-dac-amp-by-light-harmonics/9165#post_11914373

Not going to lie, the Infinity sounds awesome in my set up. But, my patience ran out plus Amazon return policy is about to expire.
After reading various reviews and impressions, I am looking forward to the Ygg. If the Ygg is on par with the Infinity, I will be more than thrilled. For some reason, I think it will be better.

I have until the 31st to return the Infinity. Which gives me close to two weeks to compare to the Ygg when it arrives. I don't have a reference headphone set up. I do have what I think without going mega dollar, the best bang for the buck 2.0 listening room. Parasound P7, Parasound A23, to Ascend Sierra 2. I do have a sub, but the Sierra 2 puts out enough bass, I haven't turned it on.

Also looking forward to your impressions.

 

[jbr1971]

I haven't heard the Infinity myself, waiting on a Vi Tube Special Edition (or whatever they call it), can't say first hand. I do recall reading that Hifiman used the Infinity at a show to demo the HE-1000. They must have thought it sounded OK

I do empathise with the difficulties dealing with LH Labs, with the frustration over technical glitches, and the feeling of "never doing this again". But, I do think Larry does good sound...

 
Hifiman used a Vi DAC with the HE-1000, and Mr. Speakers used a 1.0 Infinity with the Ether's at RMAF in October.
 
Jody

 

[smial1966]

That's nice! :rolleyes:

It'd be even nicer if Pulse Infinity (chassis 2.0) European backers who first pledged in OCTOBER 2013 had a definitive shipping date instead of having to endure this LH Labs protracted fiasco, as having to wait 27 months+ for our units just beggars belief and is downright shameful. :mad:

Hifiman used a Vi DAC with the HE-1000, and Mr. Speakers used a 1.0 Infinity with the Ether's at RMAF in October.

Jody

 

[germay0653]

I have a GO 720 and an Infinity, both fed by an LPS4 with the 10G cables, and the Infinity, by a large margin, has greater detail and a more expansive and precise soundstage.  I have never listened to the yggy so I can't comment on how it compares to the Infinity.  It has had nothing but great reviews and that's a good thing!!

 

[woodcans]

That's nice!

It'd be even nicer if Pulse Infinity (chassis 2.0) European backers who first pledged in OCTOBER 2013 had a definitive shipping date instead of having to endure this LH Labs protracted fiasco, as having to wait 27 months+ for our units just beggars belief and is downright shameful.

 
 
I remain amazed that LHL hasn't made right by you. 
 
I am now sending my Pulse Xfi back to LHL for it's SECOND repair. Gotta be honest, LHL's service is actually good, but my patience is running thin. If this return/repair doesn't fix it for good, I will be done with this company. Forever.

 

[Panelhead]

I have been using mine as a dac. Sound from the XLR and RCA outputs has been great. Using a Jays LPS instead of wallwart.
Tried a nice set of headphones and the sound is distorting from the 1/4" plug on the front. Have not tried the 4 pin XLR.
The three gain settings do not help and this is at all volume levels. Is a trip to LH required?
This is a two month old Infinity in the 2.0 chassis. Do not use cans much. But surprised that this is not performing.
Tried a couple pair of headphones and then tried with another dac/headphone amp and the issue is the Infinity. Both sets of phones work fine with another amp and neither sounds right with the Infinity.

 

[wingsounds13]

Sounds like your Pulse is weak and irregular and needs to go visit the doctor. California... not the worst place to visit.

The headphone output on my infinity is quite good from both balanced and unbalanced.

J.P.

 

[Benny-x]

  That "auditory memory" thing probably comes into play about me comparing them. Maybe what we remember is the feeling vs. the sound? Anyway, find it hard to believe as you may, but I was pretty unsatisfied with the sound of my Infinity. It was really mediocre and costs 5x as much as my GO1K. I'll get the LPS4 back from RMA hopefully in the middle of February or so and then get it connected up in late March. Then I'll be able to compare the full Infinity stack as it was intended to be used. I hope to hear some difference.
 
I haven't done a side by side A/B with the GO1K, so the "feeling" or memory of the sound was what I was basing that comparison off of.
 
I'll wait for it to get all burned in and then have another go at it. Maybe even bring it into the office so I can do an A/B. I expect to hear differences, with the Infinity being better, but so far that's not what I'm getting. Fingers crossed.

  I have a GO 720 and an Infinity, both fed by an LPS4 with the 10G cables, and the Infinity, by a large margin, has greater detail and a more expansive and precise soundstage.  I have never listened to the yggy so I can't comment on how it compares to the Infinity.  It has had nothing but great reviews and that's a good thing!!

 
So I've had my Infinity running for about 75-100 hours now and I had a quick listen last night. It did sound good. And yes, certainly better than my GO1000. Haha. 
 
Who knows what it was? Was it not run in well enough, did it not have enough warm up time, was it the time of day? Who knows. But last night when I had a listen it was good and I was happy with it. I've still got to get my LPS4 to power it and the Regen, but the Regen is feeding it for now and I'm liking the combo. 
 
I've still got another +300 hours to put on it before I'll feel comfortable in saying it's run in "enough". And then I'll make sure to leave it on all the time to make sure it's warmed up enough. 

 

[germay0653]

   
So I've had my Infinity running for about 75-100 hours now and I had a quick listen last night. It did sound good. And yes, certainly better than my GO1000. Haha. 
 
Who knows what it was? Was it not run in well enough, did it not have enough warm up time, was it the time of day? Who knows. But last night when I had a listen it was good and I was happy with it. I've still got to get my LPS4 to power it and the Regen, but the Regen is feeding it for now and I'm liking the combo. 
 
I've still got another +300 hours to put on it before I'll feel comfortable in saying it's run in "enough". And then I'll make sure to leave it on all the time to make sure it's warmed up enough. 

You owe it to yourself to at least go listen to the Yggy somewhere before you make your final decision on what to keep but audiophile nervosa (feeling there is always something better you could have purchased) seems to have set in.  I suffer from that condition also!!

 

[doctorjazz]

Pretty common affliction around these parts...cured by death or bankruptcy, whichever comes first!

 

[Benny-x]

 
You owe it to yourself to at least go listen to the Yggy somewhere before you make your final decision on what to keep but audiophile nervosa (feeling there is always something better you could have purchased) seems to have set in.  I suffer from that condition also!!

Oh I'm TOTALLY going to find a place to have a listen of the Yggdrasil. In too many places around these forums, all from people how have similar components+views as me, I'm hearing the right things. It's definitely on the list of things to do. But I'll be keeping the Infinity, so no decision there, but the thing is whether I "need" an Yggdrasil in the future?
 
Regarding Audiophile Nervosa; I thought the running definition of that was actually the nagging fear that your components need upgrading and need all those "support" products to sound better, like cable lift blocks, after market fuses, going fully balanced vs. stick with single ended when you're not experiencing noise issues, conditioning your power, removing all SMPS units in favour of linear power supplies, or upgrading your capacitor in your amps. All the questionable moves. I guess thinking about it, buying up a new DAC because you've got that nagging feeling that it's better counts too, I just never looked at it that way. I enjoy laughing about all the small tweaks being Audiophile Nervosa vs. buying new components, which almost definitely means the sound WILL change.
 
For how I manage to combat the "do I need to replace this DAC, maybe I should have bought another one" feeling, I just grow new set ups :etysmile: The Infinity has found it's home in my "office set up", which didn't even exist before this... Now I've got a pair of office headphones (closed back, JVC HP DX-1000), after market USB cables(LH Labs LS 2G), USB Reclocker (UpTone Audio Regen), LPS(LPS4), and maybe an upcoming dedicated amp to make best use of the DAC in the Infinity. The Yggdrasil would maybe just find it's way into my "speaker set up", which currently shares all components with my "headphone set up". Then I'd navigate the "headphone set up" into the bedroom, and it'd becoming the "quite, because I'm concerned for my wife getting a good sleep, set up"... Oh ****, I've already started to fill in the blanks...

 

[doctorjazz]

Once it sets in, Audio Nervosa becomes chronic, possibly financially debilitating!