Nebby Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skullguise Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 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.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebby Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincent215 Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skullguise Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spritzer Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 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... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Chalk Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 Trying to keep the power supply clean, perhaps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spritzer Posted November 8, 2013 Report Share Posted November 8, 2013 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guzziguy Posted November 9, 2013 Report Share Posted November 9, 2013 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blessingx Posted November 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2013 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Sneis Posted November 12, 2013 Report Share Posted November 12, 2013 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blessingx Posted November 21, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jp11801 Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purk Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
complin Posted November 22, 2013 Report Share Posted November 22, 2013 Go for a battery based DAC liked the J Kenny - Quite impressive IMO given their price Trying to keep the power supply clean, perhaps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwzhan Posted November 29, 2013 Report Share Posted November 29, 2013 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naamanf Posted November 29, 2013 Report Share Posted November 29, 2013 I'm a sucker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blessingx Posted November 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2013 You're not the only one. In for a second. I think I've paid more for just the crossfeed circuit in the past. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roadtonowhere08 Posted November 30, 2013 Report Share Posted November 30, 2013 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blessingx Posted November 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2013 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naamanf Posted November 30, 2013 Report Share Posted November 30, 2013 people didn't follow directions, It was just $6 and I send the rest in partial bitcoin hashes? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roadtonowhere08 Posted November 30, 2013 Report Share Posted November 30, 2013 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... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebby Posted November 30, 2013 Report Share Posted November 30, 2013 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roadtonowhere08 Posted November 30, 2013 Report Share Posted November 30, 2013 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naamanf Posted November 30, 2013 Report Share Posted November 30, 2013 I assumed being a Geek Force member was just signing up for their site, especially after seeing as the large "Join" button. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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