Light Harmonic Geek Pulse

[roadtonowhere08]

We do read your email. Just need to double confirm.

 

Your $189 refund has been sent through Paypal already. Please check.

 

Thanks for your support.

 

The refund went through.

 

The whole damn thing was avoidable and they did not really own up to the mistake:

 

It appears that there are a few people who were not already backers who took advantage of this deal. It’s pretty easy for us to identify who those folks are, but for now we’d like the opportunity to speak to those of you that fall into this group in order to make it right for everybody."

 

The deal was vague.  The fact that they would have made it right with me if I mentioned blessingx's username really pisses me off.  I made sure not to mention him just to see if I was treated the same, even though I kind of eluded to it.  This is not something I am desperately needing (since I would get it in June at the earliest), but if I have to haggle just to get the deal that they fucked up on, I would rather take my money elsewhere.  

 

It sounds like I am sour grapes, but it's not about the money at all.  It's about the fact that even though they have an existing company with distribution and everything, this whole thing stinks of amateur hour.  I am firmly in the camp of take the small hit for PR points, and they chose to have an accusatory e-mail address ([email protected] - fucking really?), bad communication (I only knew of this because of blessingx's post), and poor execution.

 

Here is their latest PR campaign:

LH LABS’ PR REFERRAL CONTEST (Part 1)

We have decided to give away THIRTEEN awesome PRIZES to each of the HIGHEST MEDIA REFERRERS to Geek Pulse: http://igg.me/at/geekpulseaudio.

 

To participate, all you have to do is pitch our campaign to people in the media who you know (or who know someone you know). Somebody has to know somebody at the NY Times, right?

(Part 2) PRIZES

Grand Prize - Abyss AB-1266 Headphones, Geek Pulse X Special Edition, LightSpeed USB Cable, and iPad Air ($8292 value)

The first person to get a story published in the Wall Street Journal will get one (1) pair of new Abyss AB-1266 headphones, one (1) Geek Pulse X Special Edition, one (1) 0.8 meter LightSpeed USB Cable in either configuration (standard or split), and one (1) 16GB Wi-Fi iPad Air tablet.

First Place Prize - Abyss AB-1266 Headphones ($5495 value)

We will give one (1) pair of new Abyss AB-1266 headphones to the backer who accumulates the most points.

Second Place Prize - Audeze LCD-X Headphones ($1699 value)

We will give one (1) pair of new Audeze LCD-X headphones to the backer who accumulates the 2nd most points.

Third Place Prize - Sennheiser HD800 Headphones ($1349 value)

We will give one (1) pair of new Sennheiser HD800 headphones to the backer who accumulates the 3rd most points.

Fourth Place Prizes - Geek Pulse X Special Edition ($1299 value each)

We will give three (3) special edition Geek Pulse X's to the three backers who accumulate the 4th, 5th, and 6th most points. These special edition units have been talked about quite a bit by the Geek Force and will be limited to 20 units, all of which will be reserved for VIP Geek Force members, these winners being the first three.

Fifth Place Prizes - LightSpeed USB Cable ($999 value each)

We will give three (3) 0.8 meter LightSpeed USB Cables in either configuration (standard or split) to the three backers who accumulate the 7th, 8th, and 9th most points.

Sixth Place Prizes - iPad Air ($499 value each)

We will give three (3) 16GB Wi-Fi iPad Air tablets to the three backers who accumulate the 10th, 11th, and 12th most points.

The person who accumulates his or her points the fastest will break a tie should one occur.

Remember to email [email protected] your communication with the media outlets to earn your points!

 

Those fuckers could have swallowed a bit of profit for the obvious gains that would have brought.  Hell, I might have referred a few friends to them.  Not anymore.

 

Oh, and the 5th place prize really tells me all I need to know about that kind of people we are dealing with.  $999 MSRP?  Eat me.

Edited December 6, 2013 by roadtonowhere08

[naamanf]

Have a funny feeling it's going to turn into vaporware along with all the money....

[justin]

[jwzhan]

yeah... I laughed when I saw that thing... utter BS... I guess they really want attention from the mainstream...

And the Pulse X special edition? All they said is they are replacing about $100 worth of parts and adding some magical tunning... which they are charging $600 MSRP for... Yet they still claim they would lose money on making too many of these SE-X... This just sounds like marketing BS..

I don't think they are going to skip town with all the money, but there is the chance that their final product doesn't live up to the expectations... who knows... that's why I didn't want to pay $299 for this.

Too many uncertainties with this thing, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see...

Edited December 6, 2013 by jwzhan

[jp11801]

just requested a refund, we'll see how it goes

[Mr.Sneis]

Did not realize how much of a shit show these guys have turned out to be.  Wondering if it's possible to cancel my original Geek "out" now.  This latest PR referral thing is just icing on the cake, just screams slimy.  I had my reservations before but this just goes against everything I want to believe the hobby should be about.

Edited December 9, 2013 by Mr.Sneis

[skullguise]

I'll keep my Geek Out order, but indeed this thing has taken on a large and ugly life.....

[Nebby]

I requested a refund but have heard nothing but silence so far. Hopefully they're just busy, but even a "we're working on it" email would be nice at this point.

[jp11801]

they turned my refund around pretty quickly 

[naamanf]

Definitely some serious cheese going on. They are now offering a power supply for $389, but it has a schottky diode so I guess it's okay.

[dcpoor]

they're making available another hundred power supplies at the $289 early bird price at midnight PST.

[naamanf]

they're making available another hundred power supplies at the $289 early bird price at midnight PST.

Good. I won't buy one of those either.

[Nebby]

Okay friends, after a final couple of conversations with Crystek, we can announce that we've released a Femto Clock perk on our campaign at 3:00PM Pacific time today.

 

Here are the specs:

 

Crystek special customized ultra-low jitter TCXO clocks x 2. (One at 90,316,8000 Hz, and one at 98,304,000 Hz) -- 85 Femto (85 * 10 ^-15) Second Jitter in 100M Hz region.

Sub 1.0uV voltage reference supported dedicated clock power shunt regulator

This is all internal to Geek Pulse and Geek Pulse X.

 

A "femto" clock is a super-duper-accurate clock. It's the abbreviated term for femtosecond, which is one quadrillionth of a second. If used properly in a circuit design (like we do!), it can greatly reduce or virtually eliminate periodic errors in interpreting a digital signal (aka 'jitter').

 

As you know, low jitter means a cleaner signal path, which results in a more natural listening experience. We're VERY excited about this great new perk! Thank you all for insisting we add it.

 

Two Femto clocks for only $119, what a bargain! 127 out of 250 claimed already

Edited December 13, 2013 by Nebby

[dcpoor]

how much do femto clock upgrades usually cost?

 

and does it provide a real audible improvement?

Edited December 13, 2013 by dcpoor

[Pars]

God are these guys full of it! Who cares what the jitter is at 100MHz, how about at 10Hz? Any decent clock on the planet could probably meet (or beat easily) their spec.

[roadtonowhere08]

I hate these bastards more with every announcement.

[justin]

is this that same thing that was on kickstarter, from the makers of the Leonardo DaVinci DAC or whatever?

[jwzhan]

yep... the same group....

Those people (backers) are going nuts on this thing... some probably spent close to $1000: LPS@ 300, Pulse@ 250, Upgrade@ 150, Bluetooth@ 170, and the new 120 clock thing (using their cheapest options.)

That's a whole lot to pay for something that's almost still completely preliminary... no internal pic, no final case design, nothing at all, in fact it seems like LHL isn't even sure what it will be.... The only thing they have so far, is the measurements that , as far as I know, can be easily made up...

With the (IMO) grossly overpriced power supply and that clock thing, they collected about $150K in 3 days, which is quite stunning but also worrisome.

Yeah... everything added together just seems like a train headed for disaster, but I'm still keeping my order just because it's not that much at 199, and I'm looking at it more like a toy than a serious piece of equipment, which is the way many of the backers are thinking... They are likely to find themselves disappointed...

[Torpedo]

Are you sure that Mikhail isn't behind all this? What an upgrade scheme

[justin]

reminds me of when any portable amp pre-order thread on head-fi would do that. except the money wasn't paid up front..those days are long gone though.  you need a portable DAC that does a gigahertz and gives blow jobs to impress now

[guzziguy]

Sounds interesting, Justin.  When does yours come out?

[naamanf]

Getting real sick of all the updates and their limited release of X units then releasing another X amount because they sold so quick.

[n_maher]

I'm glad I chose not to have anything to do with this mess.  Remind me, is there an actual fracking product yet or are they just continuing to sell vaporware with a promise of delivery sometime next year?

[naamanf]

Pure vapor as far as I know. Pictures of a prototype but no internal shots. Again wouldn't be surprised if they collect the money and run, especially with the way they are doing everything they can to generate sales. Hope I'm wrong though.

[naamanf]

I guess we will have a better idea if the Kickstarter Geeks get shipped on time next month. Convenient I think how this ends right before those are supposed to be delivered.