[atsq17]

  Dear All,
 
I'm looking for a simple USB powered amp to power my UE10Pros, main purpose is just to eliminate the hiss heard on my laptops audio jack.
 
Could you advise which model is most appropriate for IEMs? I will look out for the recommended model in the for sale threads.

 
Geek Out 100 IEM Edition. It's available on discount from IndieGoGo right now. 

 

[junker]

Foe IEM the GeekOut 100. They have 30 units at "The Lowest Price Ever" right now on IGG for $231 with a December delivery.

 

[cat6man]

  Just got the first of mine and a stack of lightspeed cables. I will be taking pics tonight and putting it through it's paces with the LPS.

 
cool............love to see pix
still waiting for my lightspeed 2G cable here

 

[Barra]

 

 

  http://headphone.guru/geek-pulse/

 
Read that the day it came out. It's like the only review of the Geek Pulse in existence it seems. 

That's because I was the only one with a unit in the wild until now. The Pulse and the Pulse X are just being shipped. The Xfi that I had was serial number 2 and came straight from RMAF. They had #001 and #002 there for listening.

I don't know if it was the pulse or the pulse x, but I listened to one of the two at RMAF downstairs in the CANJAM section for about 5 minutes and can tell you that in general it sounded great, but the signature was very much like the GO1000 or my GO720 with the audiophile, tuby, high powered sound. The guy working the desk told me that it was funny that I said tuby sound as Larry was very much into tubes and has tubes all over their facilities. I believe the HP I listened to was the Alpha which was the first time I had heard it, so that may play into my impressions, but it did sound very much like what I was used to with the GO's. They were playing Hotel California, the live version, which sounded great. What was nice about the pulse was having a working volume knob to get the volume dialed in correctly and easily and the stable desktop format that didn't feel like I would break something with a tug on the cable. As for power, it was hard to tell with an unfamiliar HP but the GO's only feel so overpowered because they are so hard to dial the volume which was not an issue for the more elegant pulse solution. 
 
So in short, same familiar sound, all the power you need, and in a much more useful form factor for those who are not mobile laptop warriors. However, as much as I preferred the convenience and form factor. I would have trouble paying that much more for the pulse to drive my LCD2s, NT6pros, or HD700s without a more significant SQ increase. Maybe the noise or the small amount of listening time was a factor in this, but those were my initial impressions.

 

[chartwell85]

In regards to Junker's post, heres the link for the lowest price ever Geek Out IEM 100.  
 
http://bit.ly/GeekOutIEM100
 
You're not going to find it for this price again. 

 

[mark5hs]

Hey, I need a good portable amp and I'm think about getting this. Couple questions first: 
 
1. I notice it has two line outs... what's the difference? 1 linear 1 balanced? 2 different gains? Can't seem to find an answer on their website...
 
2. I'd use it mainly with IEMs (GR07 bass edition and HifiMan RE600S are what I use at the moment), but I'd also use it with my Bowers P5 and my Denon AHD2000. Which model would be best, 100 or 1000? What exactly do they mean by saying that the 100 is more fine tuned for IEMs? I'm leaning toward the 1000 if it'll work well with IEMs and my cans... can't really afford to get two portable amps.
 
3. How much were they going for during the campaign, as the backer price?
 
4. If I got a USB to micro USB cable, would it work with a stock Android phone? (Galaxy S4 running 4.4.2 specifically)
 
 
Thanks! 

 

[AxelCloris]

  Hey, I need a good portable amp and I'm think about getting this. Couple questions first: 
 
1. I notice it has two line outs... what's the difference? 1 linear 1 balanced? 2 different gains? Can't seem to find an answer on their website...
 
2. I'd use it mainly with IEMs (GR07 bass edition and HifiMan RE600S are what I use at the moment), but I'd also use it with my Bowers P5 and my Denon AHD2000. Which model would be best, 100 or 1000? What exactly do they mean by saying that the 100 is more fine tuned for IEMs? I'm leaning toward the 1000 if it'll work well with IEMs and my cans... can't really afford to get two portable amps.
 
3. How much were they going for during the campaign, as the backer price?
 
4. If I got a USB to micro USB cable, would it work with a stock Android phone? (Galaxy S4 running 4.4.2 specifically)
 
Thanks! 

 
1. 0.47 ohm output and 47 ohm output.
 
2. For IEM primarily, 100. For hard to drive cans, 1000. For the most rounded use, 720 or 100 with an external amp. The 1000 is overkill for IEM. Trust me, I have one and there's not as much play in the volume levels as I'd like. The P5 should run fine off the 100, don't know about the D2k. The 100 has a better noise floor for sensitive headphones giving it a blacker background and you have more play in the volume since there's less power being pushed through the amp.
 
3. Depends on which campaign. During Kickstarter the 1000 could be had for $200 if you got in early, the 100 didn't exist at that time.
 
4. Can't answer that one, best for someone who owns an Android device.

 

[doctorjazz]

I


Thanks

Perhaps you could give us a brief comparison between the GO1K and GO SE.  

OK, spent some time listening today while doing some office work. I did it sort of formally, it is a bit of a pain to disconnect 1 geek out, reconnect the other, go back and forth that way, so I Plugged both into a powered USB hub (Vaunix Lab Brick). JRiver is also a bit finicky with the Geek Out, I've had it crash a number of times just changing headphones, had to reboot the computer (not this time, though it did freeze a number of times, requiring a Task Manager closing and reopening), To minimize connecting/disconnecting, I had the Geek Out 1000 connceted to my JRiver 19. It is also a pain to keep changing the output in JRiver, so I had the Geek Out Special Edition running out of the Pono app (which is a rebranded and slightly redecorated JRiver200. I seems to be a bit better organized, ato least in the short time I have used it). Thus, I just had to move the headphones from 1 Geek to another. I liistened to Hi Rez files downloaded mostly from HDTracks, Grateful Dead American Beauty ("Ripple", "Brokedown Palace", "Truckin. Also listened to Beck's "
Cycle" from the latest album, Daft Punk's "Get Lucky", Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Armstrong "Cheek to Cheek", Bucky Pizzarelli's fabulously recorded 3 For All, Track "Undecided", And Elton John's "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding", from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road). Headphones were mostly Shure 2540, with some time given to the FAD Hope VI, to see if what I noted was related to interactions of the gear, and which did better. OK. let me review my notes.


Now, the Geek Out 1K is not a bad player, in fact, it is quite involving and drives most heaphones without much trouble. Compared to the Special Edition, though, it sounded dry, grainy, flattened, On the SE there was more air between instruments, more body/texture to the instruments, a more realistic presentation. Detail was captured by both, but was much cleared from the CE. The graininess and slightly exaggerated highs on the 1K made it less open than the SE, which presented a much more realistic picture of the voices, music, and the space they were in. Bass, present in both, has more texture from the SE. Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, was sharp, jumping out of the headphones on the SE, not so much on the 1K, more 1 dimensional, flatter, less involving. This held true for both headphones, though was in sharper contrast with the 1540-the FAD is a tad more forgiving. The GO 1K has some grain, and is a tiny bit hot in the treble to my ears. The SE has rounder, more fleshed out images, none of that tizziness, a relaxed presentation of the performance (which doesn't mean it doesn't swing it's cajonas off). Of course, this has to be kept if the context that the SE costs 3x the GO 1K; the 1K is a very good budget performer, and I enjoyed it a bit (minus volume issues) before I got the SE. Now it hardly sees any play time.
This is interesting, in a general way. First, just responding to a request. But LH seems to have integrated the basic inners of the Geek Out into the Pulse. As the add ons to go to the GO SE involved better components, Femto clocks, etc, I'd guess a similar process is involved in the upgrades to the Pulse X and the Xfi (though this is all surmise, I don't hae any official information). So, I'd expect the performance of the Xfi compared to the Stock pulse to be considerably better, in the ways that the GO SE improves on the GO 1k.
It's 1:30 AM, not as detailed as many post, but I think it gets the idea across.




Gear in question, Green is Geek Out 1K, Gold is Special Edition

)/

 

[Baycode]

Thanks for the comparos @doctorjazz !
 
Which firmware did you use for the GO1000?

 

[doctorjazz]

I upgraded the GO1K to the latest, "improved" (for me it is improved, I had stopped using it due to the blast of full volume that would repeatedly occur. I see some differ sound quality wise, don't remember the original enough to give an opinion). The SE ships with the same software, that is, buttons for switching filters rather than volume, and no "awesomfier".

 

[AxelCloris]

Of course, this has to be kept if the context that the SE costs 3x the GO 1K; the 1K is a very good budget performer, and I enjoyed it a bit (minus volume issues) before I got the SE. Now it hardly sees any play time.

 
This 100%. I enjoyed my 1000 without any complaints until the SE arrived. Now that the SE is here the 1000 gets no play time at all, I will always reach for the SE. On its own the 1000 is not lacking but the SE is simply better across the board.

 

[Baycode]

I upgraded the GO1K to the latest, "improved" (for me it is improved, I had stopped using it due to the blast of full volume that would repeatedly occur. I see some differ sound quality wise, don't remember the original enough to give an opinion). The SE ships with the same software, that is, buttons for switching filters rather than volume, and no "awesomfier".

Thanks for the reply!

 

[doctorjazz]

Of course, this has to be kept if the context that the SE costs 3x the GO 1K; the 1K is a very good budget performer, and I enjoyed it a bit (minus volume issues) before I got the SE. Now it hardly sees any play time.

This 100%. I enjoyed my 1000 without any complaints until the SE arrived. Now that the SE is here the 1000 gets no play time at all, I will always reach for the SE. On its own the 1000 is not lacking but the SE is simply better across the board.

Did you get your Xfi yet? You have it listed in equipment. I had gone for the Xfi and LPS4, then wound up upgrading to the Soul Tube in a burst of enthusiasm, but not too much thought. Now I'm thinking the Xfi is actually more what I really wanted, it's not explicitly a rack unit (though it could be), but could also be used as a desktop, headphone amp/dac, computer audio player, which the Soul won't really be right for (it is exactly the same, but the form factor would make it odd in that application, though, I suppose, it's not that big a deal to use it that way...). How do you like it if you do have it
As I said earlier, and you said as well, the GO 1K is fine on its own, but the differences between it and the SE are not at all subtle, hits you over the head how much better it is, not sure I communicated that in the above description. When I changed between them on the same song, it was like going to a whole different recording.

 

[AxelCloris]

Did you get your Xfi yet? You have it listed in equipment. I had gone for the Xfi and LPS4, then wound up upgrading to the Soul Tube in a burst of enthusiasm, but not too much thought. Now I'm thinking the Xfi is actually more what I really wanted, it's not explicitly a rack unit (though it could be), but could also be used as a desktop, headphone amp/dac, computer audio player, which the Soul won't really be right for (it is exactly the same, but the form factor would make it odd in that application, though, I suppose, it's not that big a deal to use it that way...). How do you like it if you do have it
As I said earlier, and you said as well, the GO 1K is fine on its own, but the differences between it and the SE are not at all subtle, hits you over the head how much better it is, not sure I communicated that in the above description. When I changed between them on the same song, it was like going to a whole different recording.

 
Nope, none have shipped yet; shipping of the Pulse X line is supposed to begin this week. But I spent a fair amount of time with the Pulse Xfi/LPS combo at RMAF. I too thought about the Soul but decided that the Pulse was more what I was looking for. I'm also waiting for LHLabs to announce their tube amp so I passed on the tube buffer stage.
 
As for my impressions of the Xfi, I really liked what I heard. I heard it driving the Alpha Dog Prime and the HE-400i. I owned the Alpha Dogs when I heard the Prime and I have to say that was one nice combination but the 400i is what really surprised me. Even with open backed headphones in the noisy show environment I could tell that the sound was wonderful. I can't really compare it to the SE since I've had the SE only in controlled environments when using it with my own (modded) 400i. The Pulse that I heard definitely sounded like it was a member of the Geek family, no mistaking that. If you like the GO sound then you'll like the Pulse even more.
 
Can't wait to get my Pulse Xfi and compare it against the SE, running both off of the LPS.

 

[ejong7]

So can anybody summarize how does the 100,450,720 and 1000 compare to each other? Or is it just power. Getting mixed opinions about this.