Geshelli Archel2.5 Pro Review (headphone amplifier)

[amirm]

Let's move on folks.

 

[Xyrium]

A real engineer will not make plexiglass chassis.

Blame Ferrari for the trend...

https://www.vividracing.com/images/Capristo_03FE00410006L.jpg

 

[Robbo99999]

Honestly I'm not trying to be subtle. One thing I learned in life is that it's ok for people to treat a person bad, belittle, bully, or anything of that nature. The instant the person does anything back to the one who started it and they are the one in the wrong. That is the norm and I don't agree with that way of thinking. Treat people right and they would have no reason to do anything back in the first place.

Look, I'm a Nerd too, I am in a leadership role too, yeah maybe, the term Nerd is pejorative, and triggered you, but to me he was making fun of the design of the product in a colorful way and not "treating a person bad" This is a place where products get criticized, but also a place where products get exposure, , and in this case, arguably the performance is good, the industrial design is bland and utilitarian if we want to be nice, and arguably, "from a nerd who just care about electronics", depending from who it come from, and the various diplomacy of the person who comment.. Now, yes especially, from people in management position and considers themselves leaders, and proud of it, considering some position "above", using "work for us" instead of work with us, well, I can't speak from everyone, but I certainly wouldn't work for you. Sorry, on this there is no compromise in my views.
Edit: This will hopefully be my only political comment, but Your comment was political, I come here to talk audio, end yes I think it's ok to be opinionated, but about audio, and audio products. Restorer-John, commented 5000 times, you have 8...

Put those handbags away!

 

[PeteL]

Let's move on folks.

OK I apologize, this didn't belong here.

 

[ericisright]

When we look at the esthetics of this device (plexiglass, extruded aluminum) and look at value I can only think to compare this to the Schiit Magnius. That is one handsome device that also measures well and looks professional. How does Schiit make that for only $20 more?

The Magnius is a little too big for my desktop (one of the reasons I like the 2.5) but that should be the measure. I'm sure there are others. Discuss!

 

[Geshelli]

Hi folks. I am getting bombarded with emails asking questions like "why does your 2.5 measure worse then the Archel2" and tags to this thread regarding the appearance of our products. Amir was sent the Archel2.5 at the same exact time as the Archel2. It was sent again this year but was never measured. We also sent in the Erish for a check before we released it. We have a fully calibrated APX555 and our numbers do not match Amir's. Why, I do not know, but it is what is it. Now, as far as the aesthetics, we are making the products that we want to make. We have been doing so since 2016 and we like the look. We can easily make a product case that looks like the "norm" but we choose not to. The one's who purchase our products do so for a variety of reasons, one being, that like us, they don't want or need to conform and be like everyone else. We're very happy with who we are and what we're all about.

 

[wasnotwasnotwas]

The same nerds that just can't get enough of RGB LEDs in their gaming pooders. My 13yo son just bought RGB RAM and an RGB PSU for his his new gaming pooder build, to go with his RGB mouse and Keyboard...

The Geshelli products are just hilarious. No mature grown adult would put them in a HiFi system. Maybe on Billy-Bob's 16yo computer desk, in Mom's dank basement, perhaps. Nasty cheap extrusion, perspex end caps and arguably the most putrid implementation of controls I have ever seen. Just horrible in every respect, and a very, very, marginal step above the CNC perspex boxes all over eBay for "makers" and "hobbyists".

Anyone can put a quality performing line stage in a horrible box. It's not a big ask. Why people would clamour to buy such a hideous thing is beyond me. Buy the Topping, any Topping, for goodness sake. At least they tried.

They have a consistent design language though ;-) And I can't fault the sound. Each to their own.

 

[NightlyNurse]

Let's move on folks.

Sounds good to me. Sorry for the trouble

 

[NightlyNurse]

Hi folks. I am getting bombarded with emails asking questions like "why does your 2.5 measure worse then the Archel2" and tags to this thread regarding the appearance of our products. Amir was sent the Archel2.5 at the same exact time as the Archel2. It was sent again this year but was never measured. We also sent in the Erish for a check before we released it. We have a fully calibrated APX555 and our numbers do not match Amir's. Why, I do not know, but it is what is it. Now, as far as the esthetics, we are making the products that we want to make. We have been doing so since 2016 and we like the look. We can easily make a product case that looks like the "norm" but we choose not to. The one's who purchase our products do so for a variety of reasons, one being, that like us, they don't want or need to conform and be like everyone else. We're very happy with who we are and what we're all about.

I've worked with Geshelli before and they are awesome with amazing products to match. I ab tested my Erish to the A90 and it keeps up if not surpasses it outside of the extra power. My guess is due to the unity gain. I don't know them too well but from what I saw they are good people. They'll work with you. Thanks for the awesome products

 

[NightlyNurse]

Put those handbags away!

*Handbag put in drawer* haha

 

[ShadowNeko]

@amirm Are you going to review the Erish as well?

 

[Rottmannash]

Hi folks. I am getting bombarded with emails asking questions like "why does your 2.5 measure worse then the Archel2" and tags to this thread regarding the appearance of our products. Amir was sent the Archel2.5 at the same exact time as the Archel2. It was sent again this year but was never measured. We also sent in the Erish for a check before we released it. We have a fully calibrated APX555 and our numbers do not match Amir's. Why, I do not know, but it is what is it. Now, as far as the aesthetics, we are making the products that we want to make. We have been doing so since 2016 and we like the look. We can easily make a product case that looks like the "norm" but we choose not to. The one's who purchase our products do so for a variety of reasons, one being, that like us, they don't want or need to conform and be like everyone else. We're very happy with who we are and what we're all about.

Personally I love that look-I was an Electronics major my 1st 2 years in college ( a LONG time ago) and we often used those utilitarian cases for our builds. The clear housing is very nice indeed! And good performance. If I didn't already have a THX 789 I would consider buying this one.

 

[amirm]

@amirm Are you going to review the Erish as well?

No, I don't have one to review.

 

[Billy Budapest]

Hi folks. I am getting bombarded with emails asking questions like "why does your 2.5 measure worse then the Archel2" and tags to this thread regarding the appearance of our products. Amir was sent the Archel2.5 at the same exact time as the Archel2. It was sent again this year but was never measured. We also sent in the Erish for a check before we released it. We have a fully calibrated APX555 and our numbers do not match Amir's. Why, I do not know, but it is what is it. Now, as far as the aesthetics, we are making the products that we want to make. We have been doing so since 2016 and we like the look. We can easily make a product case that looks like the "norm" but we choose not to. The one's who purchase our products do so for a variety of reasons, one being, that like us, they don't want or need to conform and be like everyone else. We're very happy with who we are and what we're all about.

Don’t mind the haters. Your products look great—and the range of colors is something no one else does.

 

[Hemi-Demon]

Hi folks. I am getting bombarded with emails asking questions like "why does your 2.5 measure worse then the Archel2" and tags to this thread regarding the appearance of our products. Amir was sent the Archel2.5 at the same exact time as the Archel2. It was sent again this year but was never measured. We also sent in the Erish for a check before we released it. We have a fully calibrated APX555 and our numbers do not match Amir's. Why, I do not know, but it is what is it. Now, as far as the aesthetics, we are making the products that we want to make. We have been doing so since 2016 and we like the look. We can easily make a product case that looks like the "norm" but we choose not to. The one's who purchase our products do so for a variety of reasons, one being, that like us, they don't want or need to conform and be like everyone else. We're very happy with who we are and what we're all about.

I personally like the colored case and plexi match especially the smoke version. I have owned quite a few Geshelli products, as I like to support the little guy. I don't get the issue measurements like these under $200. ASR just goes crazy some times over darn near perfection. Keep up the good work.

Seems a bummer how Geshelli reviews get pushed back relative to how fast Topping and SMSL new gear items show up. The data represented hear is rather different than what is presented on the Geshelli page. Must be due to the 4V ASR standard versus full max volume per the Geshelli page.

 

[GXAlan]

Seems a bummer how Geshelli reviews get pushed back relative to how fast Topping and SMSL new gear items show up. The data represented hear is rather different than what is presented on the Geshelli page. Must be due to the 4V ASR standard versus full max volume per the Geshelli page.

I think Amir is overwhelmed with gear to test, and unlike before, he is now in a rush to get things tested and shipped back to the owner. Looking at the Denon DA-500 review, while he did spend some time looking at the effect on Alpha on/off, he also fed the unit 24-bit data when it's clearly a 16-bit DAC and he didn't do the obvious test -- how do modern DACs deal with undithered 16-bit data? The rationale for vintage gear is that it may reproduce the vintage sound for CDs where the masters are no longer available and undithered 16/44.1 is the only data source.

Good example is Amir saying he doesn't have an Erish while @Geshelli says they sent one to him. More likely than not, they're both correct. Amir probably the box unopened somewhere and Geshelli will likely be able to produce the shipping/tracking info to show that it was sent to Amir.

 

[ayane]

This is a very good amplifier and comes in a cute package! My only gripe is that the potentiometer is wonky at low levels, but that's typical of most pots. My boyfriend is thoroughly enjoying it!

 

[g0ne]

Good question. Partial answer is that the bandwidth for SNR measurement is limited to 20 kHz whereas the dashboard uses 22.4 khz. So there can be more noise between 20 and 22.4 kHz.

On distortion, there are two spikes with one at -129 and another at -130. These two add up to -126 dB or so, not 130. Summing 126 and 124 will get us down to 121 SINAD. Still higher than I showed. When I get a chance I will measure again.

Awesome!

 

[Geshelli]

I tried to edit my post to clarify but for some reason, I cannot. When I said we sent the Erish in for a check, I meant to match our machines numbers with Amir's, to verfiy that the numbers we were pulling were what he was getting as well. We chose not to have the Erish reviewed because it was a demo unit and we were going to make some changes before launch, which we did, so the review would not have been accurate. The A2.5 was sent in a few times and Amir was swamped and it was not measured or reviewed.

 

[amirm]

Hi folks. I am getting bombarded with emails asking questions like "why does your 2.5 measure worse then the Archel2" and tags to this thread regarding the appearance of our products. Amir was sent the Archel2.5 at the same exact time as the Archel2. It was sent again this year but was never measured. We also sent in the Erish for a check before we released it. We have a fully calibrated APX555 and our numbers do not match Amir's. Why, I do not know, but it is what is it.

???

You asked me to test Erish privately which is what I did. As you recall I asked you at the end if I could publish the results and you said no. If you have changed your mind let me know and I will post those measurements right away as they are ready to go.

On the other two units, you sent them to me and then asked for them back without any question. So I shipped them to you. I have long lead time at times and sometimes it takes a while before I can get to an item. The unit in this review came some 3 months ago.

As to your results not matching mine, testing protocols varies and we discussed this as well as part of my Erish testing.