Review and Measurements of New JDS Labs Atom Headphone Amp

[IcebergSimpson]

Yeah I've been using the amp for a while with the 58x and 4xx. I'm ready to take that next step up I just wasn't sure if this amp would really be enough for the 1990s.

 

[IcebergSimpson]

Give me a track to play @IcebergSimpson

Ludacris I do it for hip hop.

 

[Jimbob54]

Ludacris I do it for hip hop.

Without listening ill tell you it sounds terrible

Not my style of music and I'm sure other cans would give more bass but it's rattling my fillings at 2 o clock low gain. Noon on high gain is probs too loud.

They will take some eq to the bass should you wish. I assume you've read reviews on the cans? The Atom powers them fine

 

[IcebergSimpson]

Without listening ill tell you it sounds terrible

ahaha not a rap fan or not a ludacris fan?

 

[Jimbob54]

ahaha not a rap fan or not a ludacris fan?

The former. I expanded that post.

 

[IcebergSimpson]

The former. I expanded that post.

Gotcha. Yeah I've seen reviews on them. I have my he4xx for bass if I need it but I'd imagine those are just as good or better in that department with one of the two pads it comes with.

 

[Jimbob54]

Gotcha. Yeah I've seen reviews on them. I have my he4xx for bass if I need it but I'd imagine those are just as good or better in that department with one of the two pads it comes with.

I have the 4xx. They give more bass than the 1990 out of the box with enough juice. How do you find them with the Atom?

 

[Jimbob54]

I have the 4xx. They give more bass than the 1990 out of the box with enough juice. How do you find them with the Atom?

Where the 1990s excel are in the detail.

 

[IcebergSimpson]

Where the 1990s excel are in the detail.

Their pretty amazing for the price and work great with the amp. Just the right amount of bass/energy and detail to really enjoy the music. My 58x are great too especially with mid/vocals and decent bass. I was hoping for the 1990 to be a mix of both.

 

[Jimbob54]

Their pretty amazing for the price and work great with the amp. Just the right amount of bass/energy and detail to really enjoy the music. My 58x are great too especially with mid/vocals and decent bass. I was hoping for the 1990 to be a mix of both.

You'll like them but unless they are on a good deal, I'm not sure how much more you'll get. Mine were amazon warehouse so couldn't say no!

 

[IcebergSimpson]

You'll like them but unless they are on a good deal, I'm not sure how much more you'll get. Mine were amazon warehouse so couldn't say no!

Very nice. Well I have 2 options right now, either buy it new for $600 or ebay them for probably $500 but I feel if I'm getting this premium of a headset I'm not sure how I feel about buying it used for x amount of months. If it was amazon I'd feel better due to how easy it is to return but not ebay. Guess you can count of them to have some level of burn in though so that's not bad.

 

[Jimbob54]

Very nice. Well I have 2 options right now, either buy it new for $600 or ebay them for probably $500 but I feel if I'm getting this premium of a headset I'm not sure how I feel about buying it used for x amount of months. If it was amazon I'd feel better due to how easy it is to return but not ebay.

I wouldn't want to misquote him but I think @solderdude said neither the 1770 or 1990 were worth full price. I suppose it depends what you're coming from or might otherwise do with the money. You're in the states? so euro cans are dear. I paid £300 which feels about right . $600US way more than that

 

[Theriverlethe]

Gotcha. Yeah I've seen reviews on them. I have my he4xx for bass if I need it but I'd imagine those are just as good or better in that department with one of the two pads it comes with.

I think you'd be better-served EQ'ing the HE4XX to a Harman target. HE4XX has low enough distortion to handle a nice bass boost and JDS Atom has plenty of headroom to drive them, even with -7dB preamp for PEQ.

https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results/oratory1990/harman_over-ear_2018/HIFIMAN HE4XX

 

[IcebergSimpson]

I wouldn't want to misquote him but I think @solderdude said neither the 1770 or 1990 were worth full price. I suppose it depends what you're coming from or might otherwise do with the money. You're in the states? so euro cans are dear. I paid £300 which feels about right . $600US way more than that

Yea I've heard that before for sure. Cant seem to find a used pair anywhere else and I'm in the states so I might have to go full price but with the
cans I'm coming from it should be a pretty good jump.

I think you'd be better-served EQ'ing the HE4XX to a Harman target. HE4XX has low enough distortion to handle a nice bass boost and JDS Atom has plenty of headroom to drive them, even with -7dB preamp for PEQ.

https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results/oratory1990/harman_over-ear_2018/HIFIMAN HE4XX

I haven't tried EQ'ing any of my headsets yet, is this supposed to make a big difference?

 

[Jimbob54]

Yea I've heard that before for sure. Cant seem to find a used pair anywhere else and I'm in the states so I might have to go full price but with the
cans I'm coming from it should be a pretty good jump.



I haven't tried EQ'ing any of my headsets yet, is this supposed to make a big difference?

Good luck, post back how you find them.

BTW EQ can make as much or as little difference as you choose within reason. Where and how to apply to get what you are after is the hard bit. Get to know your 'phones raw first , then look here and elsewhere how to EQ (hint, if you use a PC or even Android phone as source, getting the ability to do EQ is easy and plenty of resources as to how to apply). As its (mostly nowadays ) software, its entirely reversible and modifiable. Endless fiddling!

 

[tankas]

...
I haven't tried EQ'ing any of my headsets yet, is this supposed to make a big difference?

Definitely! Try AutoEQ and Oratory1990 (two separate camps, first flatter, 2nd Harmon curve) with APO software. I also would recommend some crossfeed as it is what our brains expect to happen naturally with any source of the sound.

 

[Theriverlethe]

Definitely! Try AutoEQ and Oratory1990 (two separate camps, first flatter, 2nd Harmon curve) with APO software. I also would recommend some crossfeed as it is what our brains expect to happen natural with any source of the sound.

It looks like oratory1990 measurements are included in the AutoEQ output. Are you referring to the referenceaudioanalyzer category?

https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results

Edit: Actually, it looks like Oratory1990's settings are a bit different. There's an index here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets

Edit 2: You're right, AutoEQ's output from Oratory1990's measurement is quite a bit brighter.

Edit 3: No, I screwed up the EQ and used a -6dB high shelf instead of +6dB.

 

[tankas]

I had in mind Oratory1990 thread on reddit, as its his main page. AutoEq implements it a bit differently. Oratory1990 only provides pdf with measurement and how to set it up correctly.

https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/

 

[Jimbob54]

I had in mind Oratory1990 thread on reddit, as its his main page. AutoEq implements it a bit differently. Oratory1990 only provides pdf with measurement and how to set it up correctly.

https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/

In fairness , I have a few sets of cans and have tried EQ settings from all of the sources on them. None of them give me an ideal result for my ears. So I take as a start and modify to taste. Mostly they all take too much away so the 'phones lose character or add too much and they become something they weren't meant to be. Plus I dont really like dropping the pre-amp to much more than 3db

 

[Theriverlethe]

I had in mind Oratory1990 thread on reddit, as its his main page. AutoEq implements it a bit differently. Oratory1990 only provides pdf with measurement and how to set it up correctly.

https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/

It looks like the AutoEQ values actually roll off high frequencies quite a bit more than Oratory1990's PDF:

Oratory1990 doesn't try to correct anything above 10kHz or so:

(I subtracted about 1.5dB from bass in both examples to compensate for GoodHertz CanOpener crossfeed plugin.)