1. Do you have a battery vendor or supplier yet?
A: We have one supplier and two battery candidates. Currently we are working on the lead time and quality assurance of those batteries. We hope to have a high density Li-on battery that can fit in the current chassis design and also maintain a good 85% capacity after 500 cycles of charges.
The battery will be easy serviceable. But due to the internal structure and risk of damage, we are still deciding if we would like to allow the users themselves to do the battery replacement if necessary. If not, one of our repair centers or LH itself can do the repair work.
2. Does LH have vendors for all the other parts yet for the Wave?
A: All the components on PCB are secured, including DAC IC, power IC, capacitors, resistors, inductors, except for the following.
Screen Vendor. (with several good candidates)
Battery Vendor (with several good candidates)
Headphone connector of balanced output vendor
M.2 SATA storage vendor (with several good candidates)
Bluetooth IC vendor
3. I watched the video of Wave's UI, and have one question:
When an album consists of two discs, can Wave handle these properly in in album view?
(Good)
Song1 of disk1
Song2 of disk1
Song3 of disk1
Song1 of disk2
Song2 of disk2
(Not Good)
Song1 of disk1
Song1 of disk2
Song2 of disk1
Song2 of disk2
Song3 of disk1
A: This is a good suggestion. We could include that in firmware requirement. It’s definitely doable.
4. Are there some specs for the M.2 slot, which type / length / capacity are supported?
A: We use M.2 SSD in 2242 form (42mm length) and we could have from 64GB to 256GB there. 512GB is on the way as we’ve heard from our vendors. This will be able to be purchased through LH and installed by us.
In original campaign, we had no 512GB perks at all. Transcend has one 512 GB in 2242 form but we didn’t put this into the test queue because we don’t know if this would be a popular demand.
Users won’t be able to add it by themselves because we have special partition on that drive with a dedicated file format.
5. Also if there are multiple memory installed simultaneously, are they detected as JBOD, or will they seen as a single large storage(SD+SD+M.2)?
A: It won’t. To lower the large index per disc requirement, we would have the index for each SD and M.2. We could use playlist to chain up the tracks in different locations.
6. Will there be a "consolidation" of possible options for the Waves (reduction to only a few models)? Can LH provide a finalized spec chart or is that still in review?
A: We definitely will love to consolidate the options to make production speed faster. Currently our plan is above all, all the DAD/Signature backers will get their Waves first. After that, we will do a final clean sweep internally for the data and sort out the more popular configurations to start. No backers will be affected by this. The only thing that would affect something would be if we believe there is some wrong data and need the verification.
7. How long will beta testing last? What are the steps involved?
A: It should be done in four weeks. The steps are clear for testers who we will work closely with to find out any potential issues or good suggestions.
8. How many chassis versions will Wave consist of? What are the dimensions of each?
A: We will have TWO versions. One for normal Wave, one for Signature backers. Similar to the plan for Source backers. The dimensions are the same like previously mentioned: Signature is 14.5cm * 8.5cm *1.8cm. Normal Wave is 14.5cm * 7cm * 1.8cm.
9. Would like to know more about the Wave / Source UI?What will be possible in detail (possibilities of choosing tracks/albums etc.)?
For instance...a current playlist is running and I want to add another album I could choose to play the album directly (which would “delete “ the current playlist), let it start after the next song of the current playlist or add the album to the end of the current playlist.
A: Our current design is very intuitive. When you click a track, the player will play that “Instantly”. We also include the option to add that track into the current playback queue. Also, users can save/edit the current playback queue and make it a playlist.
10. Is LH able to order the Wave parts for production at this time? If so, when will that happen? If not, when will it happen?
A: We already have quite some components in stock. In current stats, we totally have 325+ types of components. But quite frankly, the major cost came from the R&D process and future PCBF/PCBA and several major expensive components. So our strategy is to keep pushing more monetary resources into this project to get it done from other profitable business lines. As we mentioned before, this Wave campaign’s total related money is less than $690K. We definitely need to pull in more resource to complete this project.
Backers, units and production time will not be affected by the above. This is what we’ve done for quite a long time until now. As mentioned before, our other products sponsor the Wave production.
11. How long should a unit “typically” take to be produced, from the factory to the LH headquarters?
A: This answer will be more solid once we finalize the PCB, Chassis and key components’ lead time.
We have included a picture for your viewing pleasure. We will include at least one more picture in the next update. In this picture the parts are:
1. Right hand side: chassis
2. Left hand side: screen with connectors
3. Upper left is SOM module
4. Upper right is main connection module
The next update will be coming later this weekend, and will include a full hardware report from Larry on the beta boards and internal testing process. We look forward to sharing the good news with you on the progress!
We also appreciate all the comments you provide us, and we also appreciate the questions. We will continue to provide updates as possible, including Q&A sessions that so many of you request of us, so please don't hesitate to submit your questions!
Larry, Jarek, and rest of team
