agisthos Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) The big problem with the Geek Pulse, is there was no actual product when they launched the crowd funding. Larry Ho seems a gifted designer, but he has had to rush the design stage into less than 6 months. Not enough time to properly design an entire line-up of DAC products. They have already had problems. Last week they had to scrap 500 pcb's (including 240 populated boards) because of digital input stability issues. Statman, The PS Audio also has the benefit of FPGA programmable improvements. Already some of the firmware updates have changed the sound apparently. Edited February 9, 2015 by agisthos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveC Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 It's not just a DAC, it should be a pretty good headphone amp which was another reason I got it. So it should be apples with apples. I think that crowd funding has it's challenges but if you want something for half price then you need to be ready for delays and hiccups along the way. If they are catching the quality issues before they get to me then I have no problem with that as sending stuff back later is a lot more costly. What I didn't like is the "choose your own adventure" idea where they went out to the customers and surveyed what extra features to put in and leave out, voting on case design etc. and this seemed to take months. It went from crowd funding to crowd design. I think this created too many different models and confused too many people. Not to mention I hate surveys and so people like me probably didn't contribute. And yes I agree they got distracted along the way with tube buffers! Anyway, proof will be in the listening when I eventually get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atsq Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 (edited) I'm not a reviewer but I put some impressions of the Geek Pulse on this thread. I've since sold the unit to another SNA member. http://lhlabs.com/force/impression/3145-more-geek-pulse-reviews?start=25 Edited February 12, 2015 by atsq Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saad Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Is it too late to order or do we have to wait until all the kickstarter ones are all sent? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thoglette Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Is it too late to order or do we have to wait until all the kickstarter ones are all sent? You can buy retail now direct from LH Labs. They've sold a bucket load (over 15,000 apparently). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
statman Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 I'm not a reviewer but I put some impressions of the Geek Pulse on this thread. I've since sold the unit to another SNA member. http://lhlabs.com/force/impression/3145-more-geek-pulse-reviews?start=25 When did you get your pulse? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john.reekie Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 FWIW I received mine in mid-December. An update just now said all base Pulses will be shipped by end of March. Which version are you waiting on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saad Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 hmm they only seem to have the Geek Out for sale on their site http://marketplace.lhlabs.com/collections/all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john.reekie Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Yes, the Geek Out has been on the store for a while now. The Pulse is actually up on the Indiegogo page but at full "retail" (USD1000). General opinion is that's a bit steep (considering the early campaign price was USD189), but used ones do pop up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
statman Posted April 4, 2015 Author Share Posted April 4, 2015 Another month, still no delivery, what a joke (on me) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
statman Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 Finally arrived. I was expecting so/so performance, but its actually not bad. It doesnt have that closed in sound common to many op-amp outputs. Its a text book Sabre, no mistaking that, but not too bad at all. I planned on modifying it, but with so many breadboard dacs here I'll leave it alone. They forgot to send linear power supply, maybe that might make it even better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveC Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 I also recently received my Pulse fi. I'm the same, it is a lot better than I expected. I would rank it above my Metrum Octave and possibly an M51 but not sure as I only had that one for a while. It has the detail of the NAD but a smoother maybe less sterile presentation. Mine has the femto clocks and I have eliminated the Stello USB converter I was using with the Metrum. I am waiting for the linear power supply to bump it up a notch again. Best analogy I can think of is that it is the first DAC I have tried that sounds as good as my Yammy CDS1000 player with all the convenience of computer audio. I threw a few sample DSD files at it as well and it played no problem although not really a big deal for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k3here Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 I got my Xfi a few weeks ago. Last week I received a notice saying mine had to be recalled! Now my unit is winging its way back to LH. Incredibly frustrating but not surprising given all the delays. I barely had a chance to listen. I wasn't blown away. But will wait for fixed unit to come back and give it a good run before concluding. One thing I did notice was how much power and volume it has without LPS. Didn't expect that. It seemed to give my brio-r a huge boost. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agisthos Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 Statman is your Pulse a vanilla or Fi version? Its good to hear the opamps are not constricting the sound too much, LarryHo seemed to place some emphasis on this during the design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atsq Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 The XFi sounds much better after a continuous run for about a week. In fact it sounds very good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john.reekie Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 It did take three weeks on for mine to come on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agisthos Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 Finally my Geek Pulse S Infinity is shipping. I don't know how useful my impressions will be. The last time I had a decent dac in my system, the Calyx DAC, I had different speakers, amps, source and cables. All different. I have no frame of reference. I currently use a cheap $700 Wolfsen DAC. I got it in late 2013 as a stop gap measure, expecting to move on from there, try the Pulse, then try some of the latest stuff from dealers. But this has dragged out for almost 2 years and I have just been in limbo. Sometimes limbo is good, for the wallet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k3here Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 I am starting to love my Pulse XFI now but only after adding the LPS4. I found it hard to decide if I liked the Pulse Xfi for the first 100 hours of listening. It was impressive but had a hard edge and shouty quality, almost brittle tinge. I thought it would settle down after a couple of 100 hours listening. But after 100 hours it didn't seem to be losing the hardness. Then I read Michael Lavorgna's audiostream's review where he mentions that when he removed the LPS4 the Pulse xfi was too loud. And I thought, yes that's what I found was the problem with mine. So I bit the bullet and ordered the LPS4 which is bleedin' expensive for a power supply by the way. For some reason I wanted to persevere rather than sell the pulse xfi. With LPS4 now in place I AM BLOWN AWAY. A simple power supply (!) has knocked all the hard edges off and raised the performance many levels to my ears. Detail, cohesion, separation are all there. What success. I am now listening to Radiohead's Amnesiac on Tidal sourced by Auralic Aries though Mad Dog's Alpha Dogs and I am hearing things I didn't know existed on what I thought was a half decent system before. But most of all I am just enjoying the music. If anyone is in the same boat with their Pulse I seriously recommend this upgrade. I am just sorry I didn't order the LPs when it was still on Indiegogo and I could have saved myself a lot of money probably. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrolug Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 LH Labs have finally given up delivering on Geek Pulse DACS - it’s official. They have announced an exchange program whereby those who ordered but never received one can opt instead for one of the company’s IEMs - Stella or Mera. It’s all here: https://support.lhlabs.com/support/solutions/articles/13000071394 There is little over a week to put in a request form. I for one never received my Pulse Infinity (the new chassis model), and I wonder if there are any others out there who are in the same position. All one can hope for is that this exchange program finally brings closure to what turned out to be a very regrettable crowdfunding experience. Many people got their fingers burnt. The company is still in business, operating under the parent Light Harmonic brand, but mainly makes IEMs and car audio for Tesla. Remarkably, the Da Vinci DAC that started the whole thing off, is still in production and now does DSD files. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pops110 Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 On 22/07/2015 at 10:31 PM, agisthos said: Finally my Geek Pulse S Infinity is shipping. I don't know how useful my impressions will be. The last time I had a decent dac in my system, the Calyx DAC, I had different speakers, amps, source and cables. All different. I have no frame of reference. I currently use a cheap $700 Wolfsen DAC. I got it in late 2013 as a stop gap measure, expecting to move on from there, try the Pulse, then try some of the latest stuff from dealers. But this has dragged out for almost 2 years and I have just been in limbo. Sometimes limbo is good, for the wallet. I believe I may have your old unit. I personally love it. Easily the best dac I’ve had in my system. Although I haven’t had any real high end dacs it beat the pants off a Primare dac 30 which retailed for around the 2k mark. I quite like the look of it but it doesn’t had the fit and finish of a dac that was nudging 4k I believe when you ordered it with all the fruit. It sure is a shame about how the company handled things, and the amount of people that got burnt. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agisthos Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 (edited) On 19/01/2020 at 6:22 PM, Pops110 said: I believe I may have your old unit. I personally love it. Easily the best dac I’ve had in my system. Although I haven’t had any real high end dacs it beat the pants off a Primare dac 30 which retailed for around the 2k mark. I quite like the look of it but it doesn’t had the fit and finish of a dac that was nudging 4k I believe when you ordered it with all the fruit. It sure is a shame about how the company handled things, and the amount of people that got burnt. That's great. Yes we keep seeing the disaster that was LHLabs and I am glad I got my product. Speaking of fit and finish, they planned to do an upgraded case for both the DAC and power supply that was much better quality. I was tempted to delay the shipment of the Infinity S and wait for the nicer case. Good thing I didn't, as I would have ended up not getting any product at all. Edited January 22, 2020 by agisthos 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrolug Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 Probably the longest running saga in audio history is slowly drawing to a close. Yesterday I received a handsome black box in the post from California - Light Harmonic’s Stella earphones. It’s not the product I ordered, way back in 2013, or ever particularly wanted. But never mind about that. As a substitute for the undelivered Geek Pulse DAC, I at least have something in my hands. I’m not one to judge these earphones, having never listened to IEMs before, but I would say after a couple of days listening they are pretty darned good, and probably a keeper. Are Stella worth their US asking price of $1,300? Are they recompense for the US$1,500 I spent on LH Labs’ / Light Harmonic’s crowdfunding campaign all those years ago? Hell, I really couldn’t care. I’m just pleased to be finished with this saga. But I really do hope that others who got into this mess get something back from Light Harmonic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raffinator Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 Source, VI, Wave for me. An expensive lesson I won't forget or repeat. I now expect nothing, so anything is upside... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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