Light Harmonic Geek Pulse

[Nebby]

2 posts and already asking people to buy via referral link? heh.

 

Honestly, the fact that they're including an audiophile usb cable makes me want it less

 

LightSpeed is an open-wheel racer, those other USB cables are freight-trains. LightSpeed USB is light, flexible, and a serious over-achiever, outperforming the competition, and exceeding all future standards. In real-world listening rooms, it's easy to install and performs beautifully. You WILL hear the difference— even if you think all USB cables are the same.

 

I've forgotten how ridiculous audiophile marketing can be It says exceeding all future standards, but it's not usb 3.0 superspeed plug compatible

[skullguise]

Smooth move, Vincent, way to endear yourself.....

 

That said, even with marketing like that, I was surprised to hear some differences with different USB cables.  I always thought a good basic shielded cable would be fine.  The recent trend, though, of splitting out or removing the power wires from the signal wires seems to make a positive difference.  I have two non-power-wire cables that sound a little less smeared than something like the simple shielded cables, or a borrowed Pangea cable....

[Nebby]

I always thought a good basic shielded cable would be fine.  The recent trend, though, of splitting out or removing the power wires from the signal wires seems to make a positive difference.  I have two non-power-wire cables that sound a little less smeared than something like the simple shielded cables, or a borrowed Pangea cable....

 

I've read about that happening and I always wonder if it's the cable or just a less-than-ideal power supply in the device.

[vincent215]

I am not a cable believer, however, having a durable and nice cable is a nice attraction

Sorry, this topic was hot the last few days. Every audio website talked about it so I coundn't help to jump posting on this thread first.

[skullguise]

I've read about that happening and I always wonder if it's the cable or just a less-than-ideal power supply in the device.

 

A good point.  The DAC's I used were good and had their own PS's obviously, but the source was a laptop computer (either a Samsung or Dell Lattitude)....could indeed be some extra noise there that you won't get with a desktop and especially a dedicated (like sotm) USB card.

[spritzer]

Even with a desktop unit the USB power supply is less than ideal to say the least.  There is also a question of how much of the dac the computer is powering and how the two power systems are interfaced.  I like the MSB way of simply letting the computer power the USB input and then send everything optically into the dac.  Nothing shared at all...

 

As for splitting the cables, I really can't see an upside to doing that.  This is DC and low power at that plus the USB spec is very strict in terms of impedance which this is bound to mess with.  While looking for the Studio Six review on 6moons I say they had some piece about this cable as well.  A quick glance at what their IT experts say (and king fucknuts) say that HDD's and who makes them matters as well.  Citing that Cat6 supersedes Cat5e as some sort of argument just goes to show how clueless these people are.  The only bit inside the computer which might make any difference is the RAM as it's acting as the buffer.  I doubt it though...

 

For what it's worth I went from a slow as fuck computer to a nice i5 unit with a SSD and 16gb of ram and I didn't hear any difference.  Same Belden USB cable though (the one MSB recommends) so that might be the problem... 

[Dusty Chalk]

Trying to keep the power supply clean, perhaps?

[spritzer]

A switcher asked to deliver this amount of power and on the cheap is never going to be clean.  Laptops are even worse as they need a lot of DC-DC converters to function. 

[guzziguy]

I've forgotten how ridiculous audiophile marketing can be It says exceeding all future standards, but it's not usb 3.0 superspeed plug compatible

 

Did the blurb say anything about meeting current standards?  I think not

[blessingx]

What do you know - the hoard has received some of their wishes on the Pulse. 

 

 

1. We're removing the decorative "V" on the front panel.
2. We're changing from a glossy acrylic front panel to a metal one.
3. We're changing the volume control buttons to a large control knob.
4. We're adding informative LED's to the front panel to display sample rates, etc.
5. We're adding a gain switch so all ya'll with IEM's won't blow your ear drums out. We're thinking three positions: 3 W, 1 W, and 100 mW.
6. The headphone output and the line output will have discrete analog circuits.

We hear you on the balanced output idea. Stay tuned as we figure that out.

[Mr.Sneis]

I appreciate what they are trying to do but I can't help but feeling that the backers are really more or less playing into LH's hands - as in they orchestrated all of this from the start and came up with a real clever way of pulling it off.  The ol' make em' think they came up with the idea trick.

[blessingx]

Quite possibly, but one way or another there's now a balanced option (4-pin headphone, dual 3-pin line) for anyone interested.

Plus a Bluetooth module and rumored wifi one coming.

They're moving fast. We'll see how this sounds in the end.

[jp11801]

Quite possibly, but one way or another there's now a balanced option (4-pin headphone, dual 3-pin line) for anyone interested.

Plus a Bluetooth module and rumored wifi one coming.

They're moving fast. We'll see how this sounds in the end.

I seriously doubt this was a pre-meditated way to build buzz. Looks like a pretty cool device that could make a great work desktop solution 

[purk]

You can also buy them in larger quanity of 12 at discount.  The local audio club here in Atlanta organized a group buy and I was in for one.  $189 instead of $249.  

[complin]

Go for a battery based DAC liked the J Kenny - Quite impressive IMO given their price

 

Trying to keep the power supply clean, perhaps?

[jwzhan]

They are running a black friday special. Single ended is 189, balanced 299, and bluetooth module 129.

http://lhlabs.com/blackfriday2013

log in to see... I guess at this price, I can try the single ended... doesn't hurt.. can always sell to get the money back later.

[naamanf]

I'm a sucker.

[blessingx]

You're not the only one. In for a second. 

 

I think I've paid more for just the crossfeed circuit in the past. 

[roadtonowhere08]

Yeah, at 189, I got this over the Emotiva at $249 today pretty much for the smaller footprint.  I needed another way to be able use my speakers, sub, and headphones without doing any cable swapping (DAC1 does XLR and RCA simultaneously... if I was made of money, a DAC2 would make this problem go away).  My Lynx AES is definitely up for all sorts of output, but the DAC 707 I have now sends a HUGE thump to my sub when the sample rate changes, so I have not used my sub in a long time.  I used the DAC1 for the speakers and headphones and sent the LFE to the DAC 707.  At $189, I can ditch the 707 and play around to see what works best.

 

 

But the USB cable spiel is still a bunch of horse shit.

Edited November 30, 2013 by roadtonowhere08

[blessingx]

Interestingly, the limited sale has gone from 100 units only, to 125, to at least the SE version 150, in the last 12 hours. Reportedly (over on their forums) a lot of people didn't follow directions, so maybe 150 will mean 100 after the cancellations. 

Edited November 30, 2013 by blessingx

[naamanf]

people didn't follow directions,

It was just $6 and I send the rest in partial bitcoin hashes?

[roadtonowhere08]

Interestingly, the limited sale has gone from 100 units only, to 125, to at least the SE version 150, in the last 12 hours. Reportedly (over on their forums) a lot of people didn't follow directions, so maybe 150 will mean 100 after the cancellations. 

 

Well, it was a ridiculously stupid way it was set up.  Not sure if it was the limits of the website or they just have a devious sense of humor, but yeah, I can see how lots of people would screw up their part of the deal.

 

Also, according to their own FAQ, there are no refunds, so yeah...

[Nebby]

Looking at the forum it looks like they meant the black friday promo to only be for original pulse backers and not just anyone that is a "geek force member". Some folks thought they could order one of the black friday units in the place of their original backed item and others somehow contributed the default $6/$7/$8 contribution. Overall it's quite a snafu.

Edited November 30, 2013 by Nebby

[roadtonowhere08]

Looking at the forum it looks like they meant the black friday promo to only be for original pulse backers and not just anyone that is a "geek force member". Some folks thought they could order one of the black friday units in the place of their original backed item and others somehow contributed the default $6/$7/$8 contribution. Overall it's quite a snafu.

 

Looking over the print again, I totally missed the "As a Geek Force member, we want you to be able to get another Geek Pulse, Geek Pulse X, and/or Geek Blue at an even lower price than we've offered before" part.  I am sure that many people did as well.  Looks like they backed themselves into quite the corner with the lack of big writing informing new people (like me) that this was only for existing customers, the odd donation buttons, and the fact that there are no refunds (and, by extension, no cancellations, I suppose).  Either they have to honor the price for people like me who followed the directions correctly (but were not really eligible to begin with), or they have to find a way to refund the sale price.  Either way, I am betting they learned a LOT from this sale.

 

And yeah, this is not really sufficient as demonstrated here : This offer is for Geek Force members only. Please don't let this get out!

[naamanf]

I assumed being a Geek Force member was just signing up for their site,  especially after seeing as the large "Join" button.