LH LABS: Never received your crowd funded product?

Discussion in 'General Audio Discussion' started by Blake, Feb 12, 2019.

  1. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    This is damn depressing. I think we (no one specific) sometimes overestimate people's morals. Alot of scammers know exactly what they're doing. Back when I lived in LA a long time ago, I had a "friend" who literally admitted to me he was coming up with a scam. He actually used the word "scam". I parted ways with him shortly thereafter.
     
  2. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    No doubt. And the ability to be a good conman is almost a born thing, a "natural" ability. I've heard so many people say, to avoid scams, trust your gut. But your gut is just where the real conman gets you.

    But does that fit with a path through boutique hifi, nifty low-cost portable DAC amps, and back to the hi... Oh wait!
     
  3. steve

    steve New

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    No one's talking about Vi (tube) dac?

    It took me more than 3 years of daily bugging with LH (yeah I nvr give up) and they finally got me a "B stock" (dents, scratches, skewed boards, etc.) without any upgrade opts that I've paid for.

    And I have to say I'm lucky to receive at least something. ?!

    Now they changed the name and trying to sell iems in China. MSRP 40k rmb which is about 6k usd. Good for larry hu!
     
  4. Gemini

    Gemini Facebook Friend

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    Never trust a man who wears his HD800 backwards.


    [​IMG]
     
  5. ufospls2

    ufospls2 Friend

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    What makes it worse is Light Harmonic is going to be selling a $6000USD (no I didn't add a zero) IEM

    [​IMG]

    And Jarek is still spouting BS regarding the Stella.

    [​IMG]

    Maybe the $6000USD IEM and Stella etc... are larry's attempts to make cash to finish the LH Labs projects, but I highly f'ing doubt that. Dude seems to have cut and run. I know Light Harmonic was always the "High End" company vs. LH Labs, but it seems like he is pumping it up now to be the only company (not that there is anything left of LH Labs,) and hoping to f**k that people don't realise they are related. Perhaps this will work in Asia, but not over here. I'm pissed I ever bought a Geek Out and supported this shitbag.

    [​IMG]
     
  6. GoodEnoughGear

    GoodEnoughGear Evil Dr. Shultz‎

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    I'm kinda glad I have my GO2A's. The best thing they ever did. Pity.
     
  7. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    Yes, this is all very sad. Larry really knew what he was doing on the engineering side. Just couldn't run a business, and now has basically become a crook. I am lucky that I was able to exchange products I was waiting for for a couple GO products.
     
  8. FallingObjects

    FallingObjects Pay It Forward

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    So I've had some bad luck on kickstarter before, but never to this extent. Makes me wonder how much of the culpability these crowd funding sites can really shed when scams and non-starters are becoming so common on those platforms - I've seen more than one project that would be scientifically impossible (like the StarWars style underwater rebreather).

    edit: The project updates and comment section looks eerily similar...
    https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/scorkl-breathe-underwater-with-total-freedom
     
  9. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    I think specifics are too nebulous for Kickstarter or indiegogo to be blamed for these issues. There are alot of legitimate campaigns out there and alot of people genuinely don't mean to scam anyone. People just have to be more diligent when considering a campaign to donate money to.
     
  10. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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  11. Syzygy

    Syzygy Friend

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    There, fixed that for ya.

    I nearly went in on a Geek Wave, but I saw that they would start a new campaign before fulfilling a prior one, and that raised a big red flag for me (Are these new funds to complete the old project? Why can't they fulfill one project instead of starting 2 or 3 new ones?).

    The other red flag was all of the upgrades that they listed. Having that many variations plays hell with supply planning and fulfillment.

    I did go in on their cheap IEM's (sub-$100), that promised oh-so-excellent sound. I wanted to limit my exposure and test the waters before possibly going for something else LHL-produced. What a piece of cheap, unlistenable shrill shit they sent. And then they sent replacements that were only slightly less unlistenable when the uproar got too much.

    KS and IGG should limit an entity to a single active concurrent campaign. That should help young companies focus on a single product instead of becoming overwhelmed with too much too fast. And would also prevent that type of outright fraud.

    (edit: add IEM participation info, which I hadn't remembered until after posting)
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2019
  12. captkirk

    captkirk Khan's BFF

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    Drove by today.

    Space is occupied with a company called ioSafe. You can just make out the sign through the window.

    Sorry for the shitty pic. I was rushed.

    [​IMG]
     
  13. mscott58

    mscott58 Friend

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    I still
    Thanks Captain! Very useful, although disappointing (and not that surprising) information.

    Also, do I see the letters "NCC-1701" on that white pickup truck?
     
  14. Blake

    Blake Acquaintance

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    Thanks for taking the time to do that. Much appreciated. So that is 5701 Lonetree Blvd., Suite 114 in Rocklin, CA?
     
  15. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    My Name is Thad E Thinagom. There: totally safe from recognition
    :sail:
    This doesn't add up. Great engineers do not spend four years working on a good idea and produce nothing.
    That's unfair, and totally biased against left-eared people!
     
  16. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    May I humbly suggest that the name should now be Blight Harmonics?
     
  17. netforce

    netforce MOT: Headphones.com

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    In college, I worked at a manga company part time for 3 years. In that time I was part of the team and probably worked on a dozen kickstarter projects.

    It is pretty stark the transition the company made over the years, going from 1 kickstarter project a year to by the time I left in July 2016 they had 4 kickstarters that year. Publishing books wasn't the focus anymore. Publishing books was a means of padding out kickstarter tiers so people would have to spend more per tier.

    Kickstarters became a means of funding the last project that was still unfilled. They became our way of paying for anime cons. There was probably 3 kickstarter project leaders when I left.

    Kickstarters consumed the company and everyone hated working on them and turnover was high. I checked them out recently, they hadn't done a kickstarter in a while, they haven't delivered on projects that I worked on in 2016, most of the staff has been laid off, they moved office locations, and their California business license was suspended.

    It's easy to get addicted to the easy crowd funding money until your backers get fed up with you which looks like what happened.

    Larry always seemed like nice guy and an engineering guy from the limited times I interacted with him. Gavin seemed to be a great hype and marketing man that split and left Larry holding the bag. I would honestly have assumed that they would go ahead and file for bankruptcy but they kept at it for years. It does look like Larry has indeed split or just laying low now.
     
  18. captkirk

    captkirk Khan's BFF

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    No. This is the Roseville address.

    They have a place in Rocklin also? That’s doable as well.
     
  19. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    The original and follow up GO products, and even the mid-upper tier Pulses were very good, particularly for Sabre implementations. Larry knew how to get good sound out of his simpler devices.
     
  20. Blake

    Blake Acquaintance

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    Yes, they apparently closed the Roseville office. The Rocklin address I posted above is the current address for Light Harmonic.
     

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