[WCDchee]

All this talk about adding a USB filter, and buying a better power adapter, use balance cables, or adding another amp doesn't give me much confidence. This was supposed to be the end all, all in one, or that's how it was billed to me.

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 can't stand this thing for more than 30 minutes. I would literally put my headphone down and do work... at the office. Like real work! I guess the X-FI is great for the company I work for, but not for me.

All this wait, and to me it didn't deliver. If I can return it I would.

I makes me wonder if you are trolling. The Pulse can't be that bad.

What other audio devices are you comparing it against?

I actually had the infinity, with an LPS, and trust me I had the same findings as you did. I borrowed a Chord Hugo, and within 10 minutes, put the infinity up on sale and went for a Hugo. The Infinity got one thing right, the amp is dead quiet, barely any hiss, but the sound of the amp and dac sections just didn't measure up to the Chord Hugo at all. To me at least. The level of resolution, transparency, just wasn't quite there despite its ridiculous MSRP.

 

[carz]

@WCDchee, May I know how many hours of active run-in have you logged in for the Pulse? Did you compare the dacs on speaker setups too?

 

[adrian0115]

It is not just the Pulse that can benefit from one of the many USB cleaners/stabilizers/reclockers that are available. Seemingly every DAC, $100/$1000/$10000+ can be improved by these tweaks. In the world of audio there seems to be nothing that cannot be improved. Don't blame it in the Pulse... which does seem to have a better USB implementation than many or even most in its price class.

As far as sound: you have found out about the FTM and other filters, so that is a good start. Also, I suggest using the high gain mode for the headphone amp - at least I find it to be noticeably better than low or medium gain.

You mentioned leaving the power on and that is a good move too. During this time have you also had an active signal, music or some kind of sound playing, or just sitting idle when you are not listening to it? It is necessary to have an active signal for break in. Just sitting idle with the power on will do very little. It takes several hundred hours of active playback for the Pulse to approach its best. In my case it was at its worst from 1 through 50 hours or so and continued improving up to around 400 hours, after which I could no longer detect any changes. The Pulse has the most profound burn in changes that I have experienced in any piece of audio equipment.

While I have an infinity rather than the Xfi, I am sure that the differences are small and I find the Pulse X Infinity to be an excellent DAC.

J.P.

I find it interesting that people can hear "burn-in" changes.  I guess my hearing isn't as good as you guys since I have found no discernable difference whether it's 1hr or 1500hrs.  The funny thing is, I can hear no difference between  Amazon/Belkin Gold/QED/Lightspeed 1G/Lightspeed 2G USB cables either.  Looks like I'm deaf or my HD650's are crap. 

 

[WCDchee]

@WCDchee, May I know how many hours of active run-in have you logged in for the Pulse? Did you compare the dacs on speaker setups too?

Mine at over 200 at that point, and yes I did compare them both as dac/amps, and as dacs for both headphone and speaker setups. The step up when i went to the Hugo was very clear in my opinion.

 

[zerograin]

I makes me wonder if you are trolling. The Pulse can't be that bad.

What other audio devices are you comparing it against?

I hesitated sharing my thoughts for a long time.
 
As it stands right now, I'm not impressed...
The sound to me is thin and lifeless... I'm never engaged in the music. It is clean, but dead. Maybe I have bad combo? 
 
I thought about using the Minimax amp for the tube sound. I also thought about buying a new tube amp. But why should I? The reason and purpose I bought into the campaign was to do away with the cluster - one simple box.
 
The whole delay thing only adds to my frustration. It would be washed over if the sound was there - but it's not.
 
It's been one bad experience for me... Take it for what it is, I'm just sharing my experience. I may be the black sheep. Others enjoy their pulse, I'm happy for them.  I just wish I had the same experience. I don't. And, I'm a little upset.
 
 
 
To answer your question, at home in my bedroom, I have Shuttle PC -> Ygddrasil -> Parasound P7 -> Parasound A23 -> Sierra Ascend 2. I absolutely love this setup! Just a great 2.0 system, no sub needed.
 
Previous to that I had, Asus i7 motherboar in a server chassis ->Xonar SPDIF out -> Yulong D18 -> tube buffer -> Parasound P7  -> A23 -> SVS MTS-01.
 
Other dacs I've own, a Geek 450, heavily modified Asus Xonar d2x, Burson Dac, modified Beresford Caymen, Dacmagic.

The only headphone amp I've own is the Millet Hybrid Minimax.
One audio equipment I regret losing, was Harmon Kardon Signature 2.0. It's an ancient processor, but the sound was unbelievably smooth out to Vandersteen 2CE, later replaced by a Magnepan.
Other headphones I own(ed), Beyerdynamics 990, 880 and 770, AKG 702, Shure SE425, SE215, Klipsch x10, Zero Audio DXW10, DX200. Because of the gym I go through a lot of IEM. They just get destroyed.
 
I haven't done a direct comparison to the other dacs, I'm not a reviewer. But I do know what I like hearing, and Geek Pulse XFI is not one of them.

 

[WCDchee]

I hesitated sharing my thoughts for a long time.

As it stands right now, I'm not impressed...
The sound to me is thin and lifeless... I'm never engaged in the music. It is clean, but dead. Maybe I have bad combo? 

I thought about using the Minimax amp for the tube sound. I also thought about buying a new tube amp. But why should I? The reason and purpose I bought into the campaign was to do away with the cluster - one simple box.

The whole delay thing only adds to my frustration. It would be washed over if the sound was there - but it's not.

It's been one bad experience for me... Take it for what it is, I'm just sharing my experience. I may be the black sheep. Others enjoy their pulse, I'm happy for them.  I just wish I had the same experience. I don't. And, I'm a little upset.



To answer your question, at home in my bedroom, I have Shuttle PC -> Ygddrasil -> Parasound P7 -> Parasound A23 -> Sierra Ascend 2. I absolutely love this setup! Just a great 2.0 system, no sub needed.

Previous to that I had, Asus i7 motherboar in a server chassis ->Xonar SPDIF out -> Yulong D18 -> tube buffer -> Parasound P7  -> A23 -> SVS MTS-01.

Other dacs I've own, a Geek 450, heavily modified Asus Xonar d2x, Burson Dac, modified Beresford Caymen, Dacmagic.
The only headphone amp I've own is the Millet Hybrid Minimax.
One audio equipment I regret losing, was Harmon Kardon Signature 2.0. It's an ancient processor, but the sound was unbelievably smooth out to Vandersteen 2CE, later replaced by a Magnepan.
Other headphones I own(ed), Beyerdynamics 990, 880 and 770, AKG 702, Shure SE425, SE215, Klipsch x10, Zero Audio DXW10, DX200. Because of the gym I go through a lot of IEM. They just get destroyed.

I haven't done a direct comparison to the other dacs, I'm not a reviewer. But I do know what I like hearing, and Geek Pulse XFI is not one of them.

I couldn't agree more. The infinity just didn't do it for me.

 

[nudd]

This is the thing I never understood.
 
So What is this triple buffer, clock regeneration technology for if not to get rid of the need to use Regen-like devices?
 
So are they now admitted that their triple buffer watever is not actually so **** hot in the first place?
 
Reminds me of the ad where they got people gushing about how much better the GOV2 sounds compared to the Pulse ...

 

[germay0653]

Everybody hears differently and have their subjective preferences.
 
I, personally, have never found the GO 720's I have or my Pulse X Infinity lifeless, without tone color or body. I have not had an opportunity to listen to any Chord products so I can't compare. 
 
I have used a JKDAC32, which uses a Burr-Brown chip, and a Burson Conductor, which uses the ESS Sabre chip and I find the GO to be close, but not quite as refined as compared to the Burson and the Pulse X Infinity surpasses it in level of detail/resolution, voice/instrument localization (soundstage) and tone color (Timbre) but the same with regard to transient response (attack and decay). The JKDAC32 is what some would refer to as musical, not quite as detailed/resolved and not as quick (attack and decay) but pleasant to listen to, as the others.  Timbre/Tone color seems accurate with the Pulse.  The ESS family of chips does present more detail/resolution but I wouldn't call it lifeless and it's not just the chip itself but rather the entire implementation that characterizes the sound.

 

[musicheaven]

Same experience here, definitively not lifeless. Very satisfied with the DAC but more with Revive. I do agree that it would have been better to integrate the reclocking technology however the DAC was designed prior to using reclocking designs, in a sense it's audio evolution. Even in the case of using femto clocks to reduce jitter, some of those have been added as a result of experiments. Design in general is an evolution and if you keep waiting until no more progress can be done, you'll never release anything. At one point you got to call it quit.

 

[Maelob]

I am happy with my XFI driving my Alpha Primes balanced mode. - I use the mid gain and still have plenty of juice left.  Also I have it connected to an affordable Emotiva mini x driving my Audience the Ones with a sub, and I have no complains.  But totally respect others opinions when they don't like the product.  We all have different tastes and also all kinds of different equipment connected to it that might respond in a different manner. 

 

[cbar]

  Just heard back from LHL support and they indeed want me to try flashing the MCU.  
Trouble is I can't seem to figure out how the top plate slides over to expose the microSD slot.
Am I an idiot?  Probably.  
 
Can anyone help?
 
Cheers
Sam 
 
EDIT
 
Never mind ... the top was just very tight.  I gave it some more elbow grease and it slid off.  Its only held in place with 4 magnets and whatever friction there is with the case.
 

Um, I was instructed to flash the MCU also and am experiencing idiocy myself. So HOW does the lid come off? Which direction? Does it slide front to back? Pry upward?
 
Thanks!

 

[oneguy]

If this is the V2 chassis you are referring to the lid is just held on by magnets. A simple lift up will suffice.

 

[cbar]

Got it: a FIRM lift up. Thanks!

 

[savaloco]

  Um, I was instructed to flash the MCU also and am experiencing idiocy myself. So HOW does the lid come off? Which direction? Does it slide front to back? Pry upward?
 
Thanks!

Sorry to hear you are having issues as well.  My lid is very tight and I had to pull it up from the back.  Take your time it will lift out exposing the card slot.
 
I unfortunately have not been able to get the unit working and have for the first time found customer support somewhat lacking in both response time and helpfulness.  I was initially instructed to follow the re-flashing instructions on LH's website and I felt I had except what I wasn't clear on was that the mSD card you use must be formatted with FAT or FAT16.  The problem is FAT16 can only be used on cards 2gb or smaller.  The smallest card I could buy in my area was 4gb and though I selected the FAT16 Windows used FAT32.  At least that's what made sense to me at the time because I could still see all 4gb of space.  I then downloaded a 3rd party software (Active Partition Manager) to force a 2GB/FAT16 partition but that did't seem to work.  I was finally asked to repeat the process but to also re-flash the main firmware as well as the MCU ... and to disconnect the unit from the LPS and use the wall wart.  Just received a 2gb msd card earlier today from amazon ... repeated everything and still no luck.
 
Hey ... when you tip your unit towards the ceiling and then the floor do you hear a slide/clicking sound?  
 
I do.  Wonder what that is.
 
Cheers
Sam 
 
Rest In Paisley Prince

 

[nudd]

Same experience here, definitively not lifeless. Very satisfied with the DAC but more with Revive. I do agree that it would have been better to integrate the reclocking technology however the DAC was designed prior to using reclocking designs, in a sense it's audio evolution. Even in the case of using femto clocks to reduce jitter, some of those have been added as a result of experiments. Design in general is an evolution and if you keep waiting until no more progress can be done, you'll never release anything. At one point you got to call it quit.

 


But they have been advertising their triple buffer tech as being the proprietary bees knees that gets rid of jitter by buffering the input and presumably reclocking to the femto clock as the master clock.

Otherwise, what is the point of the triple buffer proprietary stuff?

Power conditioning is another issue, but the LPS was designed to get rid of that problem.