Is LH Labs a big scam?

@roxy54 it simply means a verbal or written promise to commit to a purchase, usually with no money down or a nominal deposit. The bait for such pledges is usually in the form of substantial discounts off of retail (that is, cost or thereabouts). The risk is that nothing matures from the pledge and whatever consideration was given is lost.  

Thanks celander. I just learned something.

jeff, Did you lose a lot of money?

Roxy, Yes I am out a nice chunk of change. It was a crowd-funded project on Indiegogo (similar to Kickstarter). Crowdfunding works like this: You pledge (back) a project, and pay up front. The backers' money is (supposedly) used to fund the actual production of the product that you backed. Celander is correct: you risk losing your investment if the project falls apart. In my particular case, LH Labs did deliver as promised a Pulse DAC from an Indiegogo campaign that was launched around the same time as the others that I referred to in my OP, and that DAC sounds very good at what I consider an exceptional value.  =The Hook.

Celander, the reason for my OP was to find out if there are a lot of people outside the Indiegogo product-specific forums and LH Labs' own forums who feel ripped off (and maybe along the way, whether or not anybody is pursuing legal action against LH Labs).  I understand your astonishment, but rest assured that I am not wondering if I have been ripped off. I think a lot of people are embarrassed to have sent so much money into the black hole that is LH Labs and do not want to share their mistakes on a public forum.

Thanks to both of you.  I think we can safely put this thread to bed now.  

@jeff_from_michigan believe it or not, you’re not the first to report the apparent collapse of crowd-funding in this cottage industry of high-end audio, with attendant loss of funds. Even for an established company with a long history of great products with reliable delivery and customer service, consumer-investors can lose their investment.

Check out the CPT threads on the forum under Misc-Audio and Cankes about their Deep Core product as one example. The company owner apparently over-promised and got into a product delivery schedule bind. Many customers were affected.