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Review and Measurements of New JDS Labs Atom Headphone Amp

With the Atom it's what's on the inside that counts. IMHO, this is hands down the best amp at the $99 price, SQ wise.
 
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under normal use power supplies shouldn't break that easily, and if it does break they sell replacements.
 
PuX said:
under normal use power supplies shouldn't break that easily
Click to expand...

That's the point. Isn't normal it breaks out of nothing. It breaks from your own weight and gravity. The plastic is too thin and not good quality.
 
Gradius said:
That's the point. Isn't normal it breaks out of nothing. It breaks from your own weight and gravity. The plastic is too thin and not good quality.
Click to expand...

Are we talking about 220V power supplies here? I’ve had multiple JDS Labs products with 110V PSUs and they were all built like tanks.
 
elira said:
If it’s still under warranty just ask for a new transformer. They might not even be aware of the issue. If enough people RMA then they would need to find a better one. Considering that they are in the US they might not have long term experience with the European transformer.
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Yes, please reach out if you need help! US customers represent 67% of our sales. As of October 2020, 17 customers had reported transformer failures. We have provided free replacements in each case.

Rest assured we passed customer photos along to the transformer OEM months ago, as I found it strange that some transformers suddenly failed in 2020, with virtually no reports in previous years. The OEM responded within a detailed report the same week explaining the cause and their corrective action. In short, I interpreted their report to indicate a rushed batch.

On a side note, the same OEM builds transformers for other top brands in the industry.
 
jseaber said:
Yes, please reach out if you need help! US customers represent 67% of our sales. As of October 2020, 17 customers had reported transformer failures. We have provided free replacements in each case.

Rest assured we passed customer photos along to the transformer OEM months ago, as I found it strange that some transformers suddenly failed in 2020, with virtually no reports in previous years. The OEM responded within a detailed report the same week explaining the cause and their corrective action. In short, I interpreted their report to indicate a rushed batch.

On a side note, the same OEM builds transformers for other top brands in the industry.
Click to expand...
I know you guys at JDS Labs use proper, quality transformers but maybe a note, first time I plugged mine in it(the supply) made a weird pop noise, and this only the very first time after unpacking the amp and the power supply and plugging it in the outlet. Maybe you could include a note that this is "normal" and that it can happen at first use? Or has no one else ever mentioned this?

Not complaining, just wondering.
 
@Veri: Hm, I've never noticed that. It's difficult to say with any certainty what you experienced.
 
I bought my JDS Labs Atom one year ago. I use it every day. I'm in UK. I didn't break the PSU yet. I connected the amp with the power supply one year ago and have not touched the PSU since. I think this is a great technique!

However after 6 months the volume knob did fall off into my hand! It's OK, I pushed it back onto the spindle and it has sat there being twiddle this way & that for another 6 months and all is well. I would prefer if it hadn't come off but I don't really care. My previous headphone amp was an S.M.S.L sAp II. Very substantial metal case and metal volume knob, massive power, nothing fell off. But the Atom is *much* nicer with IEMs and really sounds great so I can happily overlook a minor, temporary, easily fixed issue.
 
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As for JDS Atom you can buy a metal knob dial, isn't expensive at all.

Gotta do it right now. ;-)
 
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