• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

JDS Labs Atom DAC+ Review

sharpty

Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2019
Messages
76
Likes
96
Location
Queen City
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 :p
+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.
 
Last edited:

MRC01

Major Contributor
Joined
Feb 5, 2019
Messages
3,425
Likes
4,030
Location
Pacific Northwest
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.
 
Last edited:

coolajami

Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2021
Messages
36
Likes
30
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

Major Contributor
Joined
Feb 5, 2019
Messages
3,425
Likes
4,030
Location
Pacific Northwest
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.
 

WhoSaidThat

Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2020
Messages
7
Likes
42
+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

Active Member
Joined
May 31, 2019
Messages
131
Likes
51
Location
San Francisco Bay Area, CA
:
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.
 
OP
amirm

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,376
Likes
234,559
Location
Seattle Area
@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

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Oct 11, 2019
Messages
1,812
Likes
2,693
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.

9725043.jpg
 
Last edited:

MRC01

Major Contributor
Joined
Feb 5, 2019
Messages
3,425
Likes
4,030
Location
Pacific Northwest
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:
1621990525891.png
 

H-713

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2021
Messages
379
Likes
666
"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

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Forum Donor
Joined
Feb 10, 2021
Messages
679
Likes
377
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?
 

don'ttrustauthority

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Forum Donor
Joined
Feb 10, 2021
Messages
679
Likes
377
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

Master Contributor
Technical Expert
Audio Company
Joined
Dec 28, 2018
Messages
7,175
Likes
18,292
Location
China
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)

:facepalm:

Please let them know this :confused:
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

Active Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2020
Messages
298
Likes
447
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.
 
Top Bottom