Geek Pulse Now Doing a $1 Million Stretch Goal

This crowd funding campaign is on fire. Some really big additions and parts upgrades planned if the $1mm mark is met.

I have one on order with the Femto clock upgrade. I may do the linear power supply as well.

 

Now it sort of sounds like a scam. jmo

 

If I read this right that they want $250k more to put some upgrade caps and resistors on two models. That is a lot of money for drop in part upgrades.

 

They have exceeded their demand on volume but with economies of scale, they can do better parts. They are not charging more for the devices to get to the $1 million so the value is just going up with scale.

Simon, it's hard to see how this is a scam as you are essentially buying a product at a discount.

 

I'm not sure about the production run numbers this online begging is supposed to fuel. But I think, if the different levels are combined I count 600 units. That is $416 per piece paid upfront for some upgrades that are not that hard to do as a running change. Heck, I have been doing such things in my preamp and only increased the price $60 since the magazine review. They are fleecing AFAICT.

 

Sorry, I shouldn't comment. Sounds a bit like the Zappa "Roxy and Elsewhere" thing though. It will be interesting to see how this works.

 

Well they are certainly getting quite a big amount of attention, and money!

The main thing that concerns me about this project is the amount of "changes" that seem to consistently take place. I realize crowdfunding campaigns require non-fully-finished products, but man has this device changed quite a bit! Once the campaign is over, I would be really surprised if they could get a working/finished product shipping within 6 months. Manufacturing, certifications, testing, etc., all take more time than one usually thinks.

 

It's not a scam, but for some reason, it just irks me in one way that the company doesn't just fund this themselves.

OTOH, I love seeing folks get in early on this, it's a whole new way of doing business and bringing customers into the fold.

 

Considering that almost every product decision they've made has been at the bequest of their backers, I can't see why anyone would call this a scam or question the methods. The Geek Force is very excited about these products and their participation in bringing them to market. Seems like a win-win.

 

There are several good reasons for this:

1. It builds the brand by having active "investors" aligned with the company.
2. It's innovative and fun.
3. It sets up the Geek Force which is very valuable as a consumer demand-based idea generator for future products and add-ons.
4. It allows LH Labs to have a precise expectation for volume of demand ahead of building the product so tooling and economies of scale are better managed.
5. It creates customer satisfaction because everyone got in far below what a normal MSRP would be.

 

Indeed. I will be getting a Geek Pulse for 50% off MSRP. Even if I don't like it, I can probably sell the thing for enough to recoup what I paid.

I wish other audio companies would scam me like this.

 

My comments only relate to the capacitor/resistor UPGRADE. The basic product(s) seems solid. Their design changes in response to customer demands are a good thing. I'm not bashing the whole company. I just think they went a bit overboard with asking for a QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS for the addition of a handful of parts that are literally LESS THAN TEN DOLLARS ADDED TO THE BILL OF MATERIALS per unit.

I'm basing this on a 600 unit build. That is what I counted quickly on the whatever-gogo site. If my math is really out of wack, let me know.

 

If you only consider parts cost perhaps but they are also selling however many extra to make up that unit volume to $1 million. But they will add the additional parts cost to all of the units.

If you assume that the average buy-in price is around $200 then that means they have to included these parts on 5,000 units (for total revenue of $1mm). So that would be a net parts cost of an additional $5 per unit. That seems reasonable to me. And that's not allowing for profit margin. And they have added in a Lightspeed Jr cable, digital out, and upgraded case already.

 

There is a blog/newsletter that is hyping the heck out of this; that has really bugged me. Like we should care they have reached X goal or Y goal? I don't.

 

Where do you get 5000 pieces for a build?

 

$1 million divided by assumed average price of $200.

 

You probably care if you bought one since it means higher quality parts.

 

Minus Kickstarter's 5% cut . . . Unless they have graduated rates.

I wouldn't mind this sort of funding for higher end goods. You can get wholesaler pricing. You're trusting the company to follow through and not cut corners, but that's pretty much always the case when you buy anything at retail.

 

Good point on the site fees although it is on indiegogo this time. Similar fees I am sure.

 

That remains to be seen. But it strikes me as the worst type of hype. I'm always leery when the hype comes that hot and heavy.

 

In the video they list the parts they plan to use and they look pretty good to me. This is a fairly established firm as they sell the well regarded DaVinci DAC so I think its unlikely they won't ship the product.

Gavin is a pretty enthusiastic guy in person so that may come across as hype somewhat but in fact just enthusiasm over the product and the crowdfunding success.

 

They'll ship it alright... but shall we make friend wagers on when? I go on record with September 2014.

 

Let's see if they get the Geek Out shipped in January, first.

 

You're confusing Geek with Oppo.

 

A bet then! Which shall hit the streets first? Geek Pulse or OPPO HA-1? If I was a bettin' man....