[Zojokkeli]

I for one would be happy to swap my Geek Wave order to a Stella, at least I'd get something concrete for my money.

 

[Raketen]

They could still work with HiBy, if only for the OS. I have the R3, it's most of the things the Wave was supposed to be... and I have it now. And they have licensed their software out.

Me too... used an R3 to make my own Wave Out+
Seems strange they turn to IEMs to generate necessary funds but aren't even selling the excellent GO stuff they've already had experience making- guess DAC/AMPs aren't profitable enough...

 

[MikeyFresh]

... even his designer capabilities should be questioned after all the IGG mayhem.
Pulse-/ViDac-/Wave-/Source design changes over and over and we all know the current status of the Wave.

As well as the very high defective rate for the Pulse campaign, perhaps the first sign of real trouble at LHL. I have a Pulse, and had an LPS4 before selling it. Both were defective, though the LPS4 was "repaired" and was functioning properly at the time I sold it.

I say "repaired" because I returned under RMA a pristine/brand new cosmetically perfect LPS4 unit that had grounding issues. It was so cosmetically perfect as to have not yet had the protective film strip covering the acrylic front panel LED lens removed.

Months later, after repeated badgering and tickets from me, LHL returned to me a different serial # unit from the one I submitted under RMA, far from cosmetically perfect, scratches and scuffs on both the chassis itself and on the front panel acrylic LED lens, which of course did not have any protective film strip covering.

When I asked them why that happened and what had become of my original unit, they said they had no idea, likely someone just packed up and shipped out my brand new looking unit to some other backer, but "don't worry" they sent me... get this... Casey Hartwell's personal unit which they had fetched right off of his desk.

Or at least that was the story Manny gave me, and you know, I believed him. After fully testing the replacement unit of "Casey Hartwell personal pedigree", I sold it.

I could not in good conscience sell my Pulse DAC however, after attempts to fix a loud motor boating type of noise that accompanied any input selection changes, and loss of signal in one channel at random times, I gave up. By that time many other members were complaining of far worse turn around times on RMAs, and I assumed if I sent the Pulse in on warranty service I'd likely never see it again.

I have the Pulse to this day, an expensive DAC for cable TV that is only really stable at all through it's Toslink input. USB input for hi-rez? Not unless you like a loud motor boating noise accompanying the music. Firmware fixes that were promised? They sent exactly one, and it solved nothing while actually briefly bricking the unit, miraculously it somehow eventually emerged from that bricked state, but that's not saying much.

Many other Pulse backers also received defective units, so Larry's engineering capabilities are definitely in question. DACs are not components known to be typically defective, quite the opposite actually. I guess you can certainly blame whatever OEM actually manufactured the boards, but that too ultimately falls on Larry. He knew or should have known the boards were defective and tried to "fix" them via firmware update promises based on which "batch" your board came from, updates that hardly materialized so much as solved any specific "board batch" problem.

 

[stuck limo]

.

 

[spyder1]

Just start a "Stella" discussion thread, and leave the WAVE thread for Wave topics. Remove Stella "Fireworks" to Stella Discussion thread!

 

[Brooko]

That's the goal, but you have members in this thread actively campaigning against us selling these, even though selling these means LH Labs which is short on money to produce the inventory you're asking to be produced, would be produced. The members in this thread are actively campaigning against backers getting the opportunity to receive their merchandise (and attacking reviewers with no skin in the game just doing their jobs, no less). Caleb isn't the only reviewer being threatened by a very small vocal minority. There's at least 2 or 3 other reviewers I know of who have had issues from the community. The next step is physically harassing people at audio shows.

1. First you say (paraphrasing) 'Stella nothing to do with other campaigns so don't judge us on that'. Then you tell us if Stella isn't successful you won't get your campaigns fulfilled. Which is it - you can't have your cake and eat it too. And typical scare tactic marketing.
2. No-one here is campaigning against backers - we're just pointing out what most people here already know - lies, lies, more lies.
3. No-one has attacked any reviewer (nice try to turn things around). I specifically stated that if it was me - ethically I wouldn't touch LHL with a barge pole. For me that goes for parent company as well. No threats - no attacks - just stating that I personally wouldn't touch you.
4. And whats the bit about physically harassing people at audio shows. Who has done that? Examples please?

All I see is more deflection.

It might interest you to also know that I've reviewed a lot of Ken's designs - including prototypes. They were all returned (no freebies), and I have been upfront with him about the one I didn't like (Jupiter). It led to a lot of emails, and a couple of phone calls. Ken was completely professional throughout - as he has been throughout his long career. I don't know a single instance of CFA or AO not standing behind their products. To call him a liar - with your company's track record ........

And one last thought - what has Ken to gain by calling you out - if it isn't true. he could have stayed quiet - no gain or loss for him either way. He called you out because he knows you copied his IP. Again the only IEM you ever made was a complete disaster. then "apparently" you have a design that you've been working for years on (having never made any other IEM - other than the flop), it just happens to have a TAEC chamber which has almost identical design to CA's IEMs. Even your boxes and designs (fonts, graphics etc) are similar. Honestly - you seem like a decent guy - why don't you just have a commonsense look and see your employer for who they really are. Plenty of other audio companies who would take a hard worker on.

I've had my say. I'll bow out of this thread now - before I say something stronger.

 

[stuck limo]

1. First you say (paraphrasing) 'Stella nothing to do with other campaigns so don't judge us on that'. Then you tell us if Stella isn't successful you won't get your campaigns fulfilled. Which is it - you can't have your cake and eat it too. And typical scare tactic marketing.

Light Harmonic funds LHL campaigns. There is no money left in the campaign coffers at least to a large extent, or to the extent that there was. Stella and similar projects are funding LHL campaigns. If Light Harmonic fails, LHL fails even harder.

1. No-one here is campaigning against backers - we're just pointing out what most people here already know - lies, lies, more lies.

Posters in this thread are actively campaigning against information (reviews) released about Stella, and actively hoping that no one buys Stella. (see above for how LHL is funded and backers receive their merchandise)

1. No-one has attacked any reviewer (nice try to turn things around). I specifically stated that if it was me - ethically I wouldn't touch LHL with a barge pole. For me that goes for parent company as well. No threats - no attacks - just stating that I personally wouldn't touch you.

Caleb was just harassed in this thread, and there's another site where the reviewer reviewed a Source unit, and the backers swarmed the comments section, bullied the author for daring to give us press, and the site ended up removing the review from the front page over the negativity the backers displayed.

1. And whats the bit about physically harassing people at audio shows. Who has done that? Examples please?

No one....yet. Larry has had veiled/not so veiled threats against him (people posting about punching him at audio shows, "better be careful", people posting about showing up at his house, etc.) on this and at least one other forum. I could see someone picketing out front of an LH table at an audio show and harassing people who are trying to listen and purchase it.

It might interest you to also know that I've reviewed a lot of Ken's designs - including prototypes. They were all returned (no freebies), and I have been upfront with him about the one I didn't like (Jupiter). It led to a lot of emails, and a couple of phone calls. Ken was completely professional throughout - as he has been throughout his long career. I don't know a single instance of CFA or AO not standing behind their products. To call him a liar - with your company's track record ........

No one has ever questioned Ken's professionalism to customers.

And one last thought - what has Ken to gain by calling you out - if it isn't true. he could have stayed quiet - no gain or loss for him either way. He called you out because he knows you copied his IP.

I believe Ken legitimately thought we copied his IP when he made that statement. We've shown (regardless of whether anyone wants to not believe it) we haven't. There is no actual proof any designs were copied. Just suppositions based on misinformation, hard feelings, and the thrill of watching a company who is poorly received in the community burn. And customers certainly wouldn't know that an IP from CA is copied: has anyone seen the inside of Asteria vs the inside of Stella? Are there pictures? Would Ken allow the general public to view his closely guarded IP? (I think not) Has Ken seen the inside of the Stella? Why Ken hasn't recanted his original statement is only known to Ken.

Again, if you think that this company is that organized where they can pump out a product like that in less than a year, your experience is with and you know a different company than I do.

Again the only IEM you ever made was a complete disaster. then "apparently" you have a design that you've been working for years on (having never made any other IEM - other than the flop), it just happens to have a TAEC chamber which has almost identical design to CA's IEMs.

LH has stated they're completely different designs and this is shown in the documents.

Even your boxes and designs (fonts, graphics etc) are similar.

The boxes don't look anything like CA. Some of the font and graphics did, and those have been redesigned. Our Asian team designed those and we told them to redesign them. That appears to have been an oversight by LH and I spoke with Larry at length over the issue. I was informed that was completely unintentional. When I spoke to Larry about it, he honestly seemed horrified when he realized the issue. We want to distance ourselves away from CA as much as possible.

Again, if anyone wants to make a Stella thread, they're more than welcome to. We aren't here to sell Stella, we aren't a paid sponsor on here, and honestly, the conversation is probably too volatile to host on Head-Fi. We can't make a Stella thread on Head-Fi and we're not even sure we would want to. Anything we have to say over it has already been shown (and apparently ignored and/or dismissed) in the document we posted. Again, we don't talk about Stella on here, per se. Others bring it up and that's the only reason we're mentioning it.

 

[marflao]

...
The boxes don't look anything like CA. Some of the font and graphics did, and those have been redesigned. Our Asian team designed those and we told them to redesign them. That appears to have been an oversight by LH and I spoke with Larry at length over the issue. I was informed that was completely unintentional. When I spoke to Larry about it, he honestly seemed horrified when he realized the issue. We want to distance ourselves away from CA as much as possible.

Hmm....again..the unawareness of Larry?
Remembers me to the trillion Wave options which - he said - he was not aware of.

Well...hard to believe, or?

It´s like a pattern....

 

[jdog]

@stuck limo, why can't you just level with us? How does LH and LH Labs plan to complete Wave production? You've repeatedly told us that there is very little money in the coffers, and based on your own comment stated over and over, it doesn't look like there is a big-time investor in China or anywhere else on the planet that is going to put up the funds to finish the Wave units for all the people that backed the campaign. What's left? Your (or Larry's) update say that development isn't even complete on the Wave... How does Larry really plan to raise the money he needs to complete the IGG projects?

 

[stuck limo]

@stuck limo, why can't you just level with us? How does LH and LH Labs plan to complete Wave production?

I've been told there are no issues with production expected. I was told that was locked down. It's the software development that's the holdup right now.

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

Android w/ Play Store now. And we choose our music app (UAPP, Neutron MP etc).

Later do a firmware update to dual boot on Pure Music OS and Android.

 

[germay0653]

He's baaaaack!

 

[Zhanming057]

I've been told there are no issues with production expected. I was told that was locked down. It's the software development that's the holdup right now.

Okay, I've got no skin in the game, but I have written code related to the USB audio protocol and mobile product development in general.

There's nothing inherently difficult with that process. It's pretty much bog-standard stuff unless you're Astell&Kern and want to do deeper optimizations to key functionalities. But that's the exception rather than the norm. And AK doesn't front-load development costs - they push products out, then iterate to improve the user experience with updates and cut costs by using the same interface for multiple products. Hiby gets perfectly serviceable sound out of a fairly lightly applied Android makeover.

Either way, I wouldn't expect any software-side issues to hold production up for more than a week or two. Persistent holdups in that process to me means one out of three things:

1. The programmers are incompetent and need to be replaced with better ones. If that's the case, it's kind of surprising that it takes almost 4 years for anyone to realize this.
2. Expectations of software functionality and quality are wildly unrealistic, in which case it's a matter of slapping some veneer onto an AOSP template (this is a bit of a gross simplification) and getting the product out there. You can always make it better with an OTA update.
3. LH has no intentions of actually producing the software on time.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Currawong]

Yep. The company is very poor at communication. That is a completely legitimate complaint that spans the entirety of this campaign.

Very poor. They were advertising the Geek Pulse as "available now" on their ads while it was being funded on Indiegogo.

That's the goal, but you have members in this thread actively campaigning against us selling these, even though selling these means LH Labs which is short on money to produce the inventory you're asking to be produced, would be produced. The members in this thread are actively campaigning against backers getting the opportunity to receive their merchandise (and attacking reviewers with no skin in the game just doing their jobs, no less). Caleb isn't the only reviewer being threatened by a very small vocal minority. There's at least 2 or 3 other reviewers I know of who have had issues from the community. The next step is physically harassing people at audio shows.

I have to feel sorry for Larry. He is completely screwed whatever he does.

Light Harmonic funds LHL campaigns. There is no money left in the campaign coffers at least to a large extent, or to the extent that there was. Stella and similar projects are funding LHL campaigns. If Light Harmonic fails, LHL fails even harder.

Thank you for finally confirming what we all suspected.

What surprises me is that the project simply hasn't been canned. It would make far more sense. Here is my speculation. Let me emphasise here, this is entirely speculation since people seem to read stuff and confuse that with actual facts. The background to this is that, back when the Geek Pulse was obviously an epic disaster with many millions of dollars of funds in projects on Indiegogo at risk, there was discussion that not only would a collapse of the projects destroy LHLabs, but would potentially take down Indiegogo with them, as it would be the biggest crowdfunded failure ever on their platform (and, at that stage, in all of crowdfunded history IIRC). So here's my speculation: Indiegogo is holding LHLabs over a barrel, having forced them into the position that they have to ship every product funded, whatever it takes. I reckon they are keeping up the pretence of the Wave being completed, even though it probably wont ever happen, because if they don't, Indiegogo can and will destroy them -- well, now just Larry essentially. Last one for good measure: This is entirely speculation.

Now a better idea: LHLabs should raise funds to buy everyone who funded the wave an AK or similar DAP worth the amount they pledged. If they buy them wholesale, they'll only have to pay a % of the the retail price.

Oh, and @stuck limo On that Stella page on Google, all the IEMs out there now similar to the CA ones were designed AFTER CA had begun selling the Andromeda, Dorado, Vega etc. The Dunu is a 2018 product. At least one company was directly copying the design of the Andromeda, and stopped after I blacklisted them from here (back when I was staff).

 

[stuck limo]

Okay, I've got no skin in the game, but I have written code related to the USB audio protocol and mobile product development in general.

There's nothing inherently difficult with that process. It's pretty much bog-standard stuff unless you're Astell&Kern and want to do deeper optimizations to key functionalities. But that's the exception rather than the norm. And AK doesn't front-load development costs - they push products out, then iterate to improve the user experience with updates and cut costs by using the same interface for multiple products. Hiby gets perfectly serviceable sound out of a fairly lightly applied Android makeover.

Either way, I wouldn't expect any software-side issues to hold production up for more than a week or two. Persistent holdups in that process to me means one out of three things:

1. The programmers are incompetent and need to be replaced with better ones. If that's the case, it's kind of surprising that it takes almost 4 years for anyone to realize this.
2. Expectations of software functionality and quality are wildly unrealistic, in which case it's a matter of slapping some veneer onto an AOSP template (this is a bit of a gross simplification) and getting the product out there. You can always make it better with an OTA update.
3. LH has no intentions of actually producing the software on time.

Just my 2 cents.

There are internal discussions on-going on how best to handle the situation I'm not at liberty to talk about publicly. Hopefully the issue gets resolved soon.