Review and Measurements of New JDS Labs Atom Headphone Amp

[milw50717]

Is the volume knob light supposed to go off when you turn it all the way left, i.e. power off the device? Mine stays on all the time...?

Yes, there is a click and the light should go off

Might be worth tapping on the case to see if it is a variation of the relay issue noted in the manual

Amplifier does not turn on
Cause: On rare occasion, mechanical relays can stick Solution: Tap or knock top of enclosure with moderate force to disengage

 

[Rockfella]

How much exponentially is this better than FiiO E10 driving ATH M40x?

 

[NemoReborn]

How much exponentially is this better than FiiO E10 driving ATH M40x?

Well. At 32 ohm the fiio is like 150 mw... the atom should push over 1 W at 32ohm. They are not even close competing each other . Night and day

 

[Vexed hex]

I got an atom earlier this week sound so much better than my magni 3. Can anyone tell me what level i should have the volume pot at for line level out to powered speakers?

Also id like to say there is a big improvement in the preamp out on the atom over the magni 3 as well. I have kanto yu6 speakers and they have always amazed me in how wonderful and detailed they sound and they scale with source changes its so amazing how much more detail and air and control the atom has brought to them just from the pre outs.

 

[soundwave76]

Cause: On rare occasion, mechanical relays can stick Solution: Tap or knock top of enclosure with moderate force to disengage

Thanks. This worked. The quality of this thing does not seem very good...

 

[Rockfella]

Well. At 32 ohm the fiio is like 150 mw... the atom should push over 1 W at 32ohm. They are not even close competing each other . Night and day

Sheer power I guess. How about audio quality .. since this is just an amp while E10 is dac+amp.
Regards.

 

[bboris77]

Thanks. This worked. The quality of this thing does not seem very good...

For me it only happened once, when the unit was brand new. Otherwise, it has been flawless.

 

[bboris77]

I got an atom earlier this week sound so much better than my magni 3. Can anyone tell me what level i should have the volume pot at for line level out to powered speakers?

Also id like to say there is a big improvement in the preamp out on the atom over the magni 3 as well. I have kanto yu6 speakers and they have always amazed me in how wonderful and detailed they sound and they scale with source changes its so amazing how much more detail and air and control the atom has brought to them just from the pre outs.

For the pre-outs, the most ideal setting is putting the amp at low gain and turning the volume all the way up. This outputs the same level of signal that is coming in from your source.

 

[ishmeister]

My Atom arrived today in the UK after 11 days of waiting. Unfortunately the power adaptor was broken (plastic ground pin was snapped off).

 

[ishmeister]

My Atom arrived today in the UK after 11 days of waiting. Unfortunately the power adaptor was broken (plastic ground pin was snapped off).

John reached out to me within a couple of hours - they're sending a replacement. Thumbs up JDS. Shit happens and JDS customer service is reassuring.

 

[or965]

I want to update that JDS think that the issues that i described is not normal and it does not related to the DAC DC offset as the issues appear on different DACs and even without DAC .They will send me a replacement as it seem that the amp is defective .I want to note that the customer service was really good and fast. I will update after I will receive the replacement, but I do not think that there will be any issues with the replacement .

As I promised that I will update after getting the replacement .I can certainty say that the replacement atom amp has no noise while adjusting the volume knob, without music or with music.
Update- I told JDS that the replacement has no issues and they ask me if I can send the defective amp to them (they will refund me for the return shipping cost). I accept it and will send it back.
I really impressed with the customer service especially as I recently experience outrageous customer service with minidsp .
JDS told me that they want to know what cause this issue .

 

[Kirsebaer]

I just received my JDS Atom today and as the rookie I am I assumed cables would be included. My big question is now: Which cables should I use to connect my PC to the JDS Atom? I read the instructions and all it says is the following:

"STEP 02 - Connect a cable from your audio player to the RCA or 3.5mm Input jack."

They don't specify which cables they recommend and which to avoid, so I am unsure on what to buy. My desktop PC has optical, 3.5mm output as well as several free USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports. I therefore assume that I have to buy one of the following cables.

1) Optical to RCA
2) Optical to 3.5 mm
3) 3.5 mm to RCA
4) 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm
5) USB 2.0 to RCA
6) USB 2.0 to 3.5 mm
7) USB 3.0 to RCA
8) USB 3.0 to 3.5 mm

Which one would you recommend? I'll be using Sennheiser HD 660 S with the Atom in case that it matters.

I don't have a DAC yet. I read in another thread that the impact on sound quality in general was:

• 80% headphones
• 15% amp
• 5% DAC

If my DAC on my motherboard wasn't the worst of the kind and had a lot of IEM then I would likely be hard pressed to tell the difference, so I thought I'd test the Atom without a DAC first.

But if I do decide on buying a DAC, what cable chain should I preferably have between my PC, DAC and Amp?

Thanks for all your help so far, it has been greatly appreciated!

 

[NemoReborn]

Well need to be analog out from pc to rca into the Atom. Basically the only analog out from pc is the 3.5mm jack from the motherbord or sound card. I would spend 100 and buy topping d10 to use with your atom. This way you would use the best out of it ...

 

[NemoReborn]

80% headphone
15% amp
5% DAC

Well if your dac is cheap. As i experienced with my asus laptop. Better dac would improve the sound by at least 50%

 

[Veri]

Better dac would improve the sound by at least 50%

That's a ridiculous statement. What was wrong with your 'cheap' asus laptop dac?

@Kirsebaer get a 3.5 mm to RCA cable. On your PC set output (BACK output green line-out port) settings in windows "disable all enhancements" and volume 100%. From there, control volume with the Atom knob.

Done.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Well if your dac is cheap. As i experienced with my asus laptop. Better dac would improve the sound by at least 50%

The change to sound caused by different dacs is shockingly much higher than we thought. They may measure 0.0003% thd+n or lower, but they sound very different from each other. Only way that I'm able to believe is in the time domain, the square wave reproduction is drastically different.

 

[Veri]

The change to sound caused by different dacs is shockingly much higher than we thought. They may measure 0.0003% thd+n or lower, but they sound very different from each other. Only way that I'm able to believe is in the time domain, the square wave reproduction is drastically different.

I humbly disagree anything to back up what you're saying?

 

[NemoReborn]

That's a ridiculous statement. What was wrong with your 'cheap' asus laptop dac?

@Kirsebaer get a 3.5 mm to RCA cable. On your PC set output (BACK output green line-out port) settings in windows "disable all enhancements" and volume 100%. From there, control volume with the Atom knob.

Done.

Have u tried my laptop’s audio ? Cause to be calling something ridiculous i guess you should experiment it first.

The bass is just not there. All sound seems congested together.

Even using the fulla2 with my apple cheap iem was night and day compared to the 3.5mm out of this laptop.

But yea... it’s ridiculous to even bother arguing on forum cause we all know how its end ... yea it never ends...

 

[NemoReborn]

Nothing wrong with cheap 0.25$ dac chip on motherboard. We should all use them. They flawless!! Why spend all this money on my moon audio dac !? Because its pretty

FACEPALM

 

[JohnYang1997]

I humbly disagree anything to back up what you're saying?

Well. Blind test. I was like dac weren't making all the difference, it's much less than amp. But in reality, the difference between dacs are very obvious.
Khadas has a lot of impact in the low end. Sounds like it has bass boost but it doesn't.
Smsl m8 sounds a little bit veiled and over all mediocre.
db magix ac3, a dongle as dac, has roll off sounding highs, but very rounded sounding. Also the imaging and soundstage is much prominent on this, vocal is upfront. I couldn't explain.
Musiland mu2p, sounds like scattered glass, forced sounding, thin flat sounding. Low gain sounds a bit smoother but still shallow sounding.
Also jds ol dac, sounds kinda like m8 but probably a little more meaty and a bit deeper lows.
Jds ol dac wasn't in the blind test. But all others I could consistently point out which is which in the blind test. Measurements showed at least 0.0003% thd.
And frequency response are obviously flat for all of them.