Geshelli Archel2.5 Pro Review (headphone amplifier)

[Acerun]

The Chinese apps and DACS seem to be failing left and right.. I'm thinking buying American is the way to go about now.

 

[Protomartyrdom]

The Chinese apps and DACS seem to be failing left and right.. I'm thinking buying American is the way to go about now.

For what it's worth, my Archel2.5 Pro died a little after a year of use. It was bought in Jan 2020, and passed away two weeks ago. It now makes a sort of loud coil whine when connected to power (I'm not talking audio out, the amp itself makes this scary audible noise), even with no ins/outs connected. Tried several power outlets with the same result. Source (iFi nano Black Label line-out to RCA), headphones (Hifiman Sundara, AKG K712) and cables are all fully working. Did not troubleshoot further in fear of ruining other equipment.

Edit: Details on amp failure.

 

[DuxServit]

My Archel2 is still running strong. It’s my daily go to amp.

 

[Swtoby]

For what it's worth, my Archel2.5 Pro died a little after a year of use. It was bought in Jan 2020, and passed away two weeks ago. It now makes a sort of loud coil whine when connected to power (I'm not talking audio out, the amp itself makes this scary audible noise), even with no ins/outs connected. Tried several power outlets with the same result. Source (iFi nano Black Label line-out to RCA), headphones (Hifiman Sundara, AKG K712) and cables are all fully working. Did not troubleshoot further in fear of ruining other equipment.

Geshelli has great customer service. They helped me with an issue. Did you contact them?

 

[Protomartyrdom]

Geshelli has great customer service. They helped me with an issue. Did you contact them?

I did not bother as it is already out of the 1-year warranty (barely) and I'm located in EU (Portugal), so shipping and repair costs with the wait time to send it back to the US and more time and fees in customs make it probably not worth the expense. I will likely take it to a local technician for repair.
That said, I really enjoyed my time with it, really clean sound in a small package that looked super cool. Pot could have been better, very noisy when adjusting volume with audio playing, kinda wild channel imbalance before 1 o'clock.

 

[bigjacko]

I did not bother as it is already out of the 1-year warranty (barely) and I'm located in EU (Portugal), so shipping and repair costs with the wait time to send it back to the US and more time and fees in customs make it probably not worth the expense. I will likely take it to a local technician for repair.
That said, I really enjoyed my time with it, really clean sound in a small package that looked super cool. Pot could have been better, very noisy when adjusting volume with audio playing, kinda wild channel imbalance before 1 o'clock.

You can still contact them and see what they can do. My unit was broken too and they send out the pcb, but it was still within warranty time.

 

[Protomartyrdom]

You can still contact them and see what they can do. My unit was broken too and they send out the pcb, but it was still within warranty time.

I just don't see a point in bothering them over this. It is out of warranty, so it would always cost me parts/labor, that's a given. Add to that shipping/customs fees by the predatory local FedEx partner, which is honestly the worst part. The total could probably get me a new amp.

 

[Protomartyrdom]

Geshelli reached out to me and are working on a resolution despite the awkward position I thought I was in. This is noteworthy customer support. Hopefully I'll have my amp working soon.

 

[Hemi-Demon]

NEW Geshelli DAC UPDATE

Hi,
You are received this email because you opted in to our newsletter. If you do not with to receive further notifications, please let me know at [email protected] and I will remove you from the list.
I wanted to put out a quick update on the new DAC. As you may know from the last newsletter, the J2 will still have the Amanero USB and we have chosen the ES9026PRO DAC chip.
We are waiting on the a shipment date for the Amanero's. Amanero is waiting on parts to finish their boards. This seems to be a trend throughout many industries. Parts are hard to get and are taking longer to ship. We have been told the boards should ship by the second week of April. Once we have an exact date, we can give an a release date.
We are picking up the aluminum this week and will start working on the cases. We plan to keep the same color options as we currently offer. Please note, we no longer carry the original black. That has been replaced by Charcoal. The black we used to use has not been available from the supplier for a few months now. This also has been a trend through the Powder Coating Industry as many of the colors that I used to purchase are no longer available.
The price for the new DAC will be:
No USB=$249.99
USB-$299.99
Stay tuned for more information as we await the shipping date for the USB's.

Kind regards,
Geno and Sherri
Geshelli Labs

That's a pretty big price jump for such an older chip. Hope they fix that ess hump. Curious why not use the 9068? Oh well I won't be buying this.

 

[Morpheus85]

from Facebook.

We tested out a variety of brands and choices including the higher end 9038. The 9038 is expensive, runs really hot, isn't very stable, and quite frankly we were not impressed with it. There is no point using something we didn't like, just to have a newer chip. Price-We don't feel the price is high. Actually, we were thrilled we could introduce a new product under $300.00. The ESS DAC chip price is much higher than AKM. Everything is harder to get and more expensive. There is a massive shortage of electronic components and the prices we pay have gone way up. Aluminum is at an all time high, shipping prices have skyrocketed and just about every component including the circuit board cost more than last year.

 

[Morpheus85]

https://geshelli.com/j2

new dac release today.

 

[Protomartyrdom]

Final update, my amp is working again! Geshelli sent me a replacement PCB, which was easy to install. I was fortunate to get the new revision, which among other improvements has an Alps A10K pot instead of an A100K. Volume control is much better (volume scales nicely with pot position now, where the A100K would get too loud too soon), and damn near perfect channel balance all the way through. Also, I'm no engineer but the circuit looks different. Maybe this would merit an update review?

 

[FirstLegion]

I just wrote a review of the E2 beta model. Please check it out when you get a chance: https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/geshelli-labs-erish2-e2-almost-here.27332/

 

[JamesYeomans]

I bought my Archel 2.5 in March 2020.

Unfortunately it died end of 2021. The lights would come on, but I could not get it to output any audio, testing with different DACs/headphones/cables etc.

As it was very definitely out of warranty, I emailed Geshelli asking how much it might cost to send it in to them for repair. After an email conversation with Sherri providing some details, she very kindly agreed to replace the PCB free of charge (with me covering postage costs to them, of course), assuming everything matched my description once inspected. To minimise shipping costs she suggested extracting the faulty PCB and just sending that (carefully wrapped); which I did.

After examination of the board, I was very kindly given the option to wait to get the board repaired (as they needed to get some parts in) or accept the PCB and new faceplates of the newer Archel2.5 X instead. Needless to say I was very happy to accept a free replacement board of the newer version.

The replacement arrived yesterday. Just as with the non-“X” version, the sound quality is superb. However, as a bonus this unit delivers more power (+ single-ended pre-outs, which aren’t useful to me personally). Previously, with Oratory1990 EQ settings in place, my Sennheiser HD-650s would get close to the limit on low-gain. With the Archel2.5 X, I have plenty of volume to play with in low-gain.

I couldn’t be happier with the fantastic customer service I have received, and with the fantastic headphone amp I now have!

NB I am in no way affiliated with Geshelli Labs.