LH Labs

Hi everyone, I am opening a thread here for all IGG backers (and other guests) to comment on the project, ask questions, post screenshots if needed, etc. As I explained in IGG, this will be a much easier place to hold discussion. The character count is unlimited, alerts to LHL staff will be given on new posts, and you can edit posts as well. I'm currently checking with FreshDesk staff on how to allow quotes on the forum. 

Again, same rules as before via IGG: the only time a post will be deleted is if it gets into personal attack territory. If you discuss LHL business practices, I don't have a problem with that. 

We look forward to hearing from you and advancing the conversation! 

- Jarek

^ pay raise in January. 

Regarding the Asteria earbuds. Official statement from Larry:

Hi all,


Here is the whole background of this co-brand earbud. In 2017 Feb, Campfire and LH Labs had a contract that LH Labs will develop a product for Campfire. We are still respecting the original agreement so this product won't be mentioned in any details. In order to compensate 80% of the development cost (NRE) for us, and in good faith, we didn't want Campfire to spend too much cash in up front. Both parties agreed to use another co-branded earbud for the major portion of that product's NRE. And we will work together on both end. That is how and where this co-branded earbud came from.

We put in a lot of engineering effort to design the schematics and PCB for that product and Campfire also provided us few samples of this co-branded earbud. Emails and communications were good and smooth on both ends. We expected nothing but a win-win relationship.

In the early of Nov., our Japanese distributor did the first time branding introduction to Japan since we didn't have any Japan distributor or partner before. The major purpose was to launch the brand and show some good products we have which include Da Vinci DAC, Vi DAC, GO2A and GO2Pro and so on. This also included the pre-launch of this co-branded earbud. They are not selling any of our products or collect any money of that co-branded earbud in that show. The whole purpose is to make a good introduction of the whole product line.

At the last day of the Nov. 3-5 Japan audio show, after our Japan distributor already put a lot of effort on marketing. Ken Ball told me they decided to terminate the original product development project and also this co-branded earbud.

This was out of the dark and I'm super surprised and not clearly understanding the decision process. Regardless, since we didn't release any news or want to launch this co-branded earbud in any other countries besides Japan, the only thing left we want to do is the make sure our partner in Japan don't get into a very bad situation for this sudden one-sided decision.

During the past few weeks, we tried to use email to communicate about how to fix the situation in Japan. And we will continue to do so.

To be super clear, we don't have any intention to get involved with this co-branded earbud anymore with Campfire. Nor want to infrige any IP they have. This would be the best result. The only problem which now seems sadly beared on our side is how we could prevent the damage of our Japanese partner. There is no users or buyers paid any money yet but our partner already spent a lot of money and effort on it. We can not just simply said "Sorry, you got screwed".

Just to be super clear: we are not selling this unit. We are not bringing it to market. It is a dead product. 

We will keep communicate with Japan and Campfire to find the best solution. And I think this statement will be also clarifyif there is any confusion.