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Geshelli JNOG2 Review (Balanced DAC)

Rate this DAC:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 12 5.5%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 70 32.0%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 106 48.4%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 31 14.2%

  • Total voters
    219
OP
amirm

amirm

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I'm beginning to appreciate what a tough job it must be making audio components, regardless of the manufacturer.
It is brutal business. I don't wish it on anyone.

And oh, another brutal business is doing what I do. A review a day and 10 complaints per review. It is like taking a college exam every day of the week!
 

Walter

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Yes, I'm sure it is quite difficult, especially for a small shop.
I'm beginning to appreciate what a tough job it must be making audio components, regardless of the manufacturer. It seems to be an endless stream of complaints about every conceivable aspect and mostly from people who have no direct experience with the product.
 

norcalscott

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I'm beginning to appreciate what a tough job it must be making audio components, regardless of the manufacturer. It seems to be an endless stream of complaints about every conceivable aspect and mostly from people who have no direct experience with the product.
Yes, it is tough to make any type of product that requires mechanical and electronic design and hard decisions have to be made at every step. Most companies have people at every step who have strong personalities and who react with different opinions when it comes time to make compromises (and there are ALWAYS compromises that have to be made). I have been a product manager for 30 long years and could tell you a thousand stories of disfunction and a hundred stories of success.

I was once managing a line of WiFi adapters - I'm talking back in the day when 802.1b was the common standard. I remember having a heated argument with the engineering manager who literally told me "No one will ever need speed faster than "b" speeds (11Mbps), there is no need to invest in developing "g" (54Mbps) technology for our adapters." He thought it would be fine to save money by staying on older tech and emphasize what our adapters did well, which was range (roughly double what competing adapters could reach). If those adapters had been measured by a site like this they would have raved about the range but dragged us through the muck on speed performance. We could have had both range and speed, of course, but then the cost of it would have been so high we would have been buried by Netgear and Linksys. His compromise may have made sense in that respect but in the end we got buried by competitors anyway.

I guess what I am saying is that you have to find a way to make as few compromises as possible and really knock it out of the park on the things that matter the most. Maybe Geshelli has done that with this device, only time will tell. I really hope they do well with this product!
 

AnalogSteph

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It is brutal business. I don't wish it on anyone.

And oh, another brutal business is doing what I do. A review a day and 10 complaints per review. It is like taking a college exam every day of the week!
We wouldn't have audio components performing at this level without absolute tons of negative feedback. It is, generally speaking, very much a good thing, even if not every single concern raised may actually be justified. Checks and balances, and stuff. The whole world is a conglomeration of feedback loops of all kinds.

Mind you, negative feedback is good for system performance, but nobody said anything about whether the parts of a system are happy this way. Rulers throughout history have repeated the mistake of surrounding themselves with yes-men (hint: that's not the definition of loyalty).

Speaking of negative feedback, I found this in the J2 manual:
The power LED indicator (top left LED) will blink when input button is held down for 2 to 3 seconds which indicates selected the volume level.
Clear as mud.

Besides, the PDF generation needs some work as it does not seem to be tagged or something. Trying to copy text only produced lots of gibberish. Some research on PDF accessibility is advised.
 
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alpha_logic

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No that is 100% a developer failure. They should probably have kept the old url structure, but barring that, they should have set up 301 redirects. And saying it is a Google failing is absolutely ridiculous, so maybe you were just not careful with your wording. Google has no way to know that the new URLcontains the same content as the old one. How would they? That is the purpose of a redirect. And note that just moving the site to a new host will not produce the error that was shown. There have to have been changes made to the site, as well.
On a hosted platform where you don't have access to the site's vhost configuration, or some tool that provides such functionality from the user interface, you can't set up redirects. Besides - the manual is clearly accessible, under the new link right under the product page, so I don't see how this is some oversight on their end:
J2 User manual

Oh and btw - google has already re-indexed the site - so a search for 'geshelli jnog2 manual' will bring you to the proper link, without any 404's, or need for redirects : )
 
Last edited:

alpha_logic

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Besides, the PDF generation needs some work as it does not seem to be tagged or something. Trying to copy text only produced lots of gibberish. Some research on PDF accessibility is advised.
So if we're now into reviewing the quality of the included documentation, then clearly the 'Chinglish' documentation of Topping/SMSL/Loxje/Gustard strikes me as the prime candidate to 'do the needful' : )
 
Last edited:

Walter

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On a hosted platform where you don't have access to the site's vhost configuration, or some tool that provides such functionality not set up redirect from the user interface, you can't set up redirects. Besides - the manual is clearly accessible, under the new link right under the product page, so I don't see how this is some oversight on their end:
I never said the manual was not online, I simply verified Amir's assertion that he couldn't quickly find one. Anyone who has read this site knows that he is unwilling to spend much time searching around for such things, and I'm sure a lot of consumers are, as well, so I can't fault him for that.

I have NEVER seen a host where I could not set up redirects, but the method of doing so varies. (Worst case, one could use the paid version of Cloudflare to do it.) However, if such a host does exist, anyone moving an existing site would be be very foolish to choose them.

This may not be an oversight on Geshelli's part, and it in no way reflects badly on their products, or the company in general. However, it is certainly one on their developer's part, and I recommend they bring the issue up with them ASAP. Without redirects, they will lose all page rank for every previous URL that has been changed. That is a disaster from an SEO/SER standpoint.

This has gotten too far off topic. If they have questions, they are welcome to message me directly. I'll be happy to help or give advice. While I'm critical of their DACs, they are by all reports nice people and clearly fellow audio enthusiasts, so I would like to see them prosper.
 

Walter

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So if we're now into reviewing the quality of the included documentation, then clearly the 'Chi-nglish' documentation of Topping/SMSL/Loxje strike me as the prime candidates to 'do the needful' : )
Oh God, yes. I managed a team of tech writers in China a couple of decades ago for a multinational corporation, and it was shocking how bad the writing was for even the large local companies. Their UX design efforts have improved tremendously, but not their docs.
 

Ro808

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Agree... Chinese may leave a small niche market for loudspeakers (because imho they have no idea about loudspeakers, or have different ears...), but for the rest they are absolute Mambo Kings...
They don't need to, because the majority of 'western' brand loudspeaker(parts) are produced in China.
 

Jimster480

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It is brutal business. I don't wish it on anyone.

And oh, another brutal business is doing what I do. A review a day and 10 complaints per review. It is like taking a college exam every day of the week!
You do great work, don't let anyone get you down.
With this site we have literally transformed the audio industry. Your reviews have set new standards for the world of audio.
 

Timstunes

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I believe I’ll stick with my Sanskrit 10th Mkii, at least for now.
 

ToneDeafMonk

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I am also glad it's different love the customization and they are great to work with. I ordered the AKM4493 version to use with my A90D I think it's going to be a stellar combo for synergy.
 

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