JDS Labs Atom DAC+ Review

[Nango]

Wow, one US corp makes obsolet the Toppings and SMSLs ..... Way to go!!!

 

[Nango]

I'd love to see performance side by side comparisons with schiit's lower end stuff. I bet a lot of people would be cross shopping the brands, with the schiit advantage possibly being materials/construction.

I think Topping and SMSL are their main competitors not Shiit.

 

[sharpty]

Seems nice, but kinda wish they just made an atom dac/amp combo in a case for $200. I know the Element exists, but it's twice as much. Which may explain why they haven't undercut their own line, mind you

+1 for a $200 combo with matching performance. I see no attraction to having a "stack" when it comes to these tiny little DACs and amps. Just more clutter and cables. I guess some people like the component system aesthetic, but I think it's corny.

 

[MRC01]

I own some JDS gear and they're a great company. Good products, great support. One product I'd like to see them make is a power supply. They make these products separately, and each has its own wall-wart power supply, so when you want a complete system (DAC, amp and maybe even the Subjective 3 EQ), you either run out of places to plug them all in (because they're physically large and can block multiple power ports) or you have an lineup of wall-warts consuming space.

A single power supply with 2-4 plugs to drive multiple devices would solve this problem. One could DIY by wiring multiple plugs from a single supply, but then you can (A) draw too much power from a single wall wart, and (B) it can cause ground loops and hum. A JDS "power supply" product could resolve these issues.

PS: I'm not the first to imagine this. Years ago I had a Musical Fidelity X-PSU which was the same concept.

 

[coolajami]

I own some JDS gear and they're a great company. Good products, great support. One product I'd like to see them make is a power supply. They make these products separately, and each has its own wall-wart power supply, so when you want a complete system (DAC, amp and maybe even the Subjective 3 EQ), you either run out of places to plug them all in (because they're physically large and can block multiple power ports) or you have an lineup of wall-warts consuming space.

A single power supply with 2-4 plugs to drive multiple devices would solve this problem. One could DIY by wiring multiple plugs from a single supply, but then you can (A) draw too much power from a single wall wart, and (B) it can cause ground loops and hum. A JDS "power supply" product could resolve these issues.

PS: I'm not the first to imagine this. Years ago I had a Musical Fidelity X-PSU which was the same concept.

I believe that was a question made already to JDS, as I've read in a blog post ( I don't remember where) that they've tried to power an atom dac and an amp from the same power brick, only to discover that it causes a ground loop that they couldn't go around.

 

[MRC01]

Exactly. The idea is JDS could build a single power supply with multiple plugs, each separately grounded or isolated to prevent ground loops. And stiff enough to provide each of them with the full power that the wall wart could provide.

 

[Tks]

Opt to use an ESS DAC

Ends up forgoing one of the main advantages of ESS chips (the brickwall filter that AKM doesn't have)



Please let them know this

 

[WhoSaidThat]

+1 for a $200 combo with matching performance. I see no attraction to having a "stack" when it comes to these tiny little DACs and amps. Just more clutter and cables. I guess some people like the component system aesthetic, but I think it's corny.

Perhaps corny until a component fails. An AIO unit necessitates sending everything back for repairs. Separates can more easily let you work around a missing component.

When my DAC failed and was being replaced, I plugged my amp into my sound card as a stopgap.

 

[P_M]

:
View attachment 131934

Since that graph has become an eye chart for quite some time, here is a zoomed version:

View attachment 131935

@amirm
If its not too difficult to do it would very useful to see the street price of the device on these charts. You always mention the price in the first paragraph of your post so thats great but it would be quite handy to just see it right there on these charts too.
Thanks.

 

[Herbert]

Any jitter measurements with Toslink?
Best, Herbert

 

[amirm]

@amirm
If its not too difficult to do it would very useful to see the street price of the device on these charts. You always mention the price in the first paragraph of your post so thats great but it would be quite handy to just see it right there on these charts too.
Thanks.

It is a good idea but currently I don't have a database of prices. The master index does and we are thinking about how to integrate them.

 

[Billy Budapest]

PS: I'm not the first to imagine this. Years ago I had a Musical Fidelity X-PSU which was the same concept.

Exactly. The idea is JDS could build a single power supply with multiple plugs, each separately grounded or isolated to prevent ground loops. And stiff enough to provide each of them with the full power that the wall wart could provide.

Schiit used to offer a power supply like this for their products too, called the Cthulhu. I guess it didn’t sell because they no longer carry it. It was only $26.

 

[randomusername]

Is there is any way to change the ESS filter to fast one? Maybe with firmware update?

 

[MRC01]

Schiit used to offer a power supply like this for their products too, called the Cthulhu. I guess it didn’t sell because they no longer carry it. It was only $26. ...

Sort of. But it looks like it only cost $26, cheesy and underpowered. I had in mind something more beefy, like the old Musical Fidelity X-PSU:

 

[H-713]

"We purchased a new APx555" seems like a frequent marketing spiel, but honestly, I doubt that in 2021 any proper company that design DACs, aside maybe one man DIY style stuff, fully send their work to the world without one, since it's the only measuring device that can attest up to optimal performance of modern chips in a design. Not everybody own one but at the very least I'd assume you rent one for a month, which in many case is sufficient.

Yes and no. An APx555 is a pretty big outlay, and a lot of smaller audio companies aren't massively profitable.

There are other ways of measuring distortion levels this low. They aren't as polished as the AP box, but they work and they work adequately. There are other distortion analyzers that can come pretty close as well. You can also manipulate a QA401 (or even a cheap audio interface) into fulfilling this task by notching out the fundamental.

I agree that Audio Precision is the industry standard and very likely the best in the industry, but they are far from being the only viable option.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

Well, they surely extracted great performance out of ES9018K2M with their "carefully tuned six opamp I/V converter" - that is a bit of innovation as it does not appear to be an off-the-shelf solution. On top of that, they offer a firmware where they deliberately tweaked the performance to approximate tube-type distortion. Not that this option will be popular around here

View attachment 131955

I thought tube type distortion would be at 2k?

 

[H-713]

I think Topping and SMSL are their main competitors not Shiit.

Schiit is certainly one of the bigger competitors for JDS labs. Long story short, however, is that they both measure well enough that they should sound audibly transparent.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

I'd love to see performance side by side comparisons with schiit's lower end stuff. I bet a lot of people would be cross shopping the brands, with the schiit advantage possibly being materials/construction.

Schiit will be coming out with a new Modi 3+ late this year when their AKM stock runs out. It's scheduled to be the last one to be updated to ESS. The all in ones will be switched first.

Also they said there is a lot more specialization in all ESS since you basically have to. Off the shelf isn't an option with ESS the way it is with AKM.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Opt to use an ESS DAC

Ends up forgoing one of the main advantages of ESS chips (the brickwall filter that AKM doesn't have)



Please let them know this

Not that simple. Actually this filter is the best filter. There's no benefit using faster filter. Look at THD+N vs Frequency it's much better than the jaggy mess isn't it?

 

[DanTheMan]

The performance looks very similar to the Hidizs S8 that I have, but the S8 is smaller than a pack of Wrigley’s gum and powered by USB. Still, I’m sure this is inaudible and it does add Toslink and RCAs.... Maybe I’d rather deal with JDSLabs if I ever needed to, but I’ve never had trouble with my Atom or my S8.