So, guess who’s coming back to town?
Yes, LH Labs is back with something new. Or rather, something not quite new, but something almost here. The Geek Pulse, LH Labs’ insanely successful headphone amp/DAC desktop wonder, is heading back to Indiegogo.
The new campaign is part of Indiegogo’s new Forever Funding campaign. I had to look that up. Turns out that Indiegogo is letting some of their campaigns run a bit outside the normal parameters. Which means consumers can continue to contribute to their favorite projects. Past the deadlines.
Geek Pulse launched about a year ago, and last night, early adopters got word that the first shipments were heading out the door. Been a long time coming, that one, but after seeing and hearing the final versions at RMAF this year, I was impressed.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one. Which is why they’re investing the Forever Funding campaign — seems that enough of you heard the new box and pitched a holy slipped in a complaint about missing out on the first two opportunities. Ask and ye shall receive, or something like that.
So, given that this is LH Labs, there’s a wrinkle. A surprise. Something a bit new. Something Something Dark Side Something.
Say hello to the Geek Soul.
Coming soon.
Geek Pulse is already pretty frickin’ great, right? Well, we don’t like to stop at mere greatness; we want to create a legend. So we’ve taken Geek Pulse Xfi, added a few little sumpin-sumpins, integrated Geek LPS, and put it all into a completely new 17” wide body that’s perfect for your home stereo. We call this tricked-out model Geek Soul.
Something magical happened when we were co-developing Geek Pulse with our Geek Force: we were given some crazy-insane feature suggestions! We were able to fit a lot of them into Geek Pulse, but some we just couldn’t fit into the original desktop chassis. With Geek Soul, you get all the technology of Geek Pulse Xfi and Geek LPS, plus:
- An ultra-low-noise bipolar power circuit.
- A high-bandwidth, low noise, optional tube output stage!
- Native DSD support: Most DSD capable DAC’s on the market, Geek Pulse included, utilize DoP (DSD over PCM) to deliver your DSD music to your stereo. With this upgrade, we install supporting passive components into Geek Soul that improve the DAC circuit’s conversion efficiency. With the improved efficiency, we can offer both DoP support and native DSD bitstreaming support.
Tempting, no? Well, the good news is that LH Labs will introduce a trade-up mechanism. They plan to let you trade in your current Geek Pulse sponsorship toward a Soul — at a 120% credit. Already spent a grand? It’s now worth $1,200 toward the Soul, against whatever price that’ll be at launch.
Me? I’m mighty curious about that whole “native DSD” thing they mention. Sounds a lot like what Light Harmonic did with the $31k Dual DAC — two discrete paths for decoding your audio, each optimized for the file type being decoded — and I like the sound of that. A lot.
Just offering a guess here, but I’m going to surprised if Soul is the only curveball this campaign will have for its backers.
Sound interesting? Go check it out yourself! The campaign is now live on Indiegogo.
People take risks all the time with investments and so here is another risk, but a small one given LH’s capabilities. Crowd funding is different, but exciting and filled with new possibilities. I have ordered up a Geek Pulse Xfi and to say I can’t wait is an understatement. I am close to eighty and I haven’t been this excited since I got my first chemistry set and a Red Ryder BB gun when I was 11.
Risky…perhaps, but like any other investment, only take risks with money you have in your pocket and can spare should the deal go south. I am not worried…impatient yes, but for what I know I am going to get, so be it. The guys at LH know their stuff and I have confidence in their abilities with electronics, even their ability to handle the tsunami of interest and orders they are getting. They seem to falter at times but they still manage.
If you don’t like waiting, if you don’t have extra cash with which to dream, go for a sure thing…if not stand back and let us dreamers enjoy our soon to be crazy new DAC with whistles and bells enough for anyone.
I am an old audiophile and very picky, but I still can’t resist a new adventure. I am old, not dead!! LOL!
Cheers
Leo
Bitstream “Native” DSD vs DoP is just marketing. It says nothing about how the signal is processed after exiting the receiver chip. For all i know it converted to PCM internally, despite the gall of calling it “native”
They really know how to get people, I am kind of broke but when they offered 3 payments of 99 I pulled the trigger. I hope it sounds better than my old Benchmark DAC 1 with Belcanto mlink usb/spdif. At least it will be a smaller footprint.
I want to add to Scott’s comment here.
Most serious manufacturing companies fund their new developments internally. In that way, they control the timeframe of what is happening, and bring a product to market when they think it is ready in terms of features and production and internal cost.
By opening the doors too soon, and taking customer money much too early in the evolving process, LH has really opened themselves up to criticism. They’re big boys, they took the risk, and now they must live with the consequences, good or bad.
The HiFi media should realize that this is a “hot” topic for many, and should not be surprised if an article about LH receives negativity. They certainly shouldn’t feel that they have to defend LH, after all, they’re big boys as I said.
Now I’m going to go and STFU!
Yeah, that was a little harsh. Mea culpa and my apologies.
No apologies necessary at all. You run a great site here, enough said.
I have never actually run a manufacturing company, but I have worked for several.
What I learned is that bringing a new product to market is absurdly complicated. Usual product dev cycles are measured in months — many months. The fact that any company can conceive, execute and profit on a new product in less than a calendar year — at volume — is remarkable. In fact, it borders on miraculous. If you’ll pardon the redundancy, you can call that a true fact.
Yes, the wait for Geek Out was long.
Yes, the wait for Geek Pulse was longer.
… And your point is?
You’ll pardon me while I roll my eyes here. Look, if you think you can do better, well, you are certainly invited to do so. That’s what many political hopefuls would call “The American Dream.” Go forth, and conquer!
Note that this is not to say that I’m happy with waiting either. I’m totally OCD about my ADD and I needs my fixes pronto-burger.
But I’d rather wait for good than rush for trash. Are you really that different? Again, not making excuses for LH Labs, but perhaps they feel the same way. I kinda wish the Auto Industry was this careful. But given the sheer number of changes that their fans required — that they then accommodated — this means they had to do a complete do-over. Probably more than one. Which resets the clock. Each time. Which meant a whole ‘nother round of … everything. Just to make sure it works. That it’s all worth delivering. That people will like it (and not pitch a holy fit about that, too).
Sure, they could have locked the product feature set from the outset. You, the consumer, could like it or lump it. Say hello to most mass manufacturing. But, for better or for worse, LH Labs didn’t do that. What they did do was be wildly above-board with what they were doing. The fact that “responsiveness” makes some consumers upset is completely beside the fact that it made more extremely happy.
Don’t like it? Don’t buy it! Upset with how it went? Don’t buy it! Already bought it and are wallowing in a pit of despair and remorse? They offer refunds!
But all the whining is armchair quarterbacking at best. Honestly, I don’t get it. It’s new. It’s different. The fact that it isn’t like what you’re used to is kinda the whole point.
Sheesh.
But here’s what I know.
1. The Geek Out was delivered. It’s actually quite tasty as far as it goes.
2. The Geek Pulse is now being delivered. Yes, they were a long time coming. Already covered that. But they’re now going out to customers. Time to move on.
3. This new Geek Pulse is for those folks that want to get in on the intro pricing. This product is not available anywhere else right now and the company is giving no indication that it will be available direct after this period ends (January, I think). Note that you do not have to play in this round to still get your product. This is optional. Say it with me: “op-shun-all”.
4. If it does go through the typical distribution channel, it will cost more. Probably much more. Duh.
From my perspective, all that matters is:
1. Whether or not the final product ships. Apparently, this is now happening, so please feel free to pour yourself a giant, steaming mug of STFU.
2. How it performs. The early bird model I heard at RMAF was better than good. Who knows what my model will sound like? But when I have it, I’ll be sure to let you all know.
When there’s more to offer, I’ll be offering more.
Forever Funding indeed. I’d much prefer to buy once from a company who will sell me a real, finalized product, rather than a company that keeps asking for money for a product that appears to be continually changing (and shipping only a year later!).
why not say what the heck it is?
Laurence Alter
That’s all very nice, but given their recent problems with promise and deliver, I’m going to take the cautious approach before investing in their products and will only consider a purchase when I’ve heard that they are getting into actual customer hands with regularity.