Geshelli Archel 3S Pro vs Lake People G103-S Mk II

Both are desktop amplifiers, $370 against $350. This page puts them side by side on the only three things a maker can be held to — power, output impedance and noise — and then asks the question that actually matters: which headphones do they treat differently?

The Geshelli Archel 3S Pro reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here, the Lake People G103-S Mk II on 566.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationGeshelli Archel 3S ProLake People G103-S Mk II
Power into 32Ω1.0 W1.0 W
Power into 150Ω213 mW804 mW
Power into 300Ω107 mW580 mW
Power into 600Ω53 mW340 mW
Output impedancenot published0.1 Ω
Output noisenot published6.15 µV
Price$370$350
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
567566

A figure marked not published is missing from the maker’s own material, which is not the same as being good or bad. Where one of these two publishes a number and the other does not, the comparison on that axis cannot be made at all — and saying so is more useful than guessing.

Where each power figure comes from

LoadGeshelli Archel 3S ProLake People G103-S Mk II
32 ΩDerivedPublished
150 ΩDerivedDerived
300 ΩDerivedPublished
600 ΩDerivedPublished

Only one of these two columns starts from a power rating. Lake People G103-S Mk II publishes one at 32 Ω, at 300 Ω and at 600 Ω; Geshelli Archel 3S Pro publishes none at any of these four loads, so its column is worked out from power it published at other loads. Both are arithmetic on a maker’s own figures rather than guesses, and the method used for the Geshelli Archel 3S Pro understates rather than flatters — but at 32 Ω, at 300 Ω and at 600 Ω are the only loads here at which its maker can be held to a figure.

What each of these labels means, and why a derived figure is still worth printing, is set out in how this data was built.

The headphones that tell them apart

1 headphone reaches 100 dB on the Geshelli Archel 3S Pro but not on the Lake People G103-S Mk II — Symphonium Titan.

566 of the 567 models here reach 100 dB on both. That is a power count and nothing more; whether either source suits a given headphone also depends on the two lines above.

Headroom and hiss on 8 models, both sources

The counts above say how many models the two treat differently. This says by how much. The same 8 headphones appear on every page of this kind, ordered from the easiest to drive to the hardest, so a row can be read across pages as well as across columns. Headroom is at a 100 dB SPL peak.

The widest gap on the list is the Audio-Technica ATH-R70X: Lake People G103-S Mk II has +24 dB of headroom there against +16 dB. 8 dB is about 6 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for Geshelli Archel 3S Pro because that maker publishes no output noise figure. That is a gap in the specification, not a quiet amplifier, and it is left blank here rather than filled with a plausible number.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsGeshelli Archel 3S Pro headroomLake People G103-S Mk II headroomGeshelli Archel 3S Pro hissLake People G103-S Mk II hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+45 dB+38 dBnot published30 dB
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+25 dB+18 dBnot published10 dB
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+28 dB+32 dBnot published8 dB
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+23 dB+30 dBnot published4 dB
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+22 dB+20 dBnot published3 dB
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+16 dB+24 dBnot published-3 dB
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+12 dB+19 dBnot published-7 dB
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW+10 dB+14 dBnot published-9 dB

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Geshelli Archel 3S Pro costs $20 more than the Lake People G103-S Mk II. Out of the 567 models here, that difference buys 1 more model driven to 100 dB.

Nothing runs the other way: there is no axis here on which the cheaper of the two does better.

Everything in this paragraph counts only figures the two makers published. An advantage on an axis one of them leaves blank cannot be counted, and is not counted — how often that happens is its own page.

Both pages in full

Each has a page of its own with every power figure traced to what the maker published and a full headphone list: Geshelli Archel 3S Pro and Lake People G103-S Mk II. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.

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