Review and Measurements of New JDS Labs Atom Headphone Amp

[THEV]

Where in Europe you residing? I can sell you mine in mint condition cheaper than that, and buy one new for myself when travelling to the US in a few weeks.

PMed

Available in Europe for £109 from hifiheadphones.co.uk

Unfortunately, they charge an additional 20GBP for shipping to the Netherlands, which throws the price back up to 170USD..

 

[THEV]

As for a DAC, there's plenty of options. But again, the by far best and most reasonable one, technically, is Khadas Tone Board. It beats well above its price range. Also, seeing as you can buy a decent case for it for 15 euros online, it's a good alternative.

Damn I now see that a Khadas staff member posted a while back that they are planning balanced outputs for the new generation boards in Q2 2019, man that would be perfect..
https://forum.khadas.com/t/balanced-output/3312/2

 

[tired_guru]

Always the modding

Yeah, not even gonna comment on this ...

Mod WHAT regarding the atom ? You can only MOD it to screw up what's been achieved there by great engineering. I would love to have it retested by amir to see and show people what all those "mods" are really worth. It would be actually epic comedy, not even mentioning total mess and fuc*&# up PCB.

So sick & tired of this bull$hit.

 

[bakker_be]

Should be. They show this as an example:

Looking at that picture I'd say these cables are too stiff. The rear feet of the topmost device are lifted up ...

 

[Veri]

Looking at that picture I'd say these cables are too stiff. The rear feet of the topmost device are lifted up ...

That's where the doorstop comes in

No honestly I have no experience with such short cables myself.. always went for off-the-shelf.

 

[bakker_be]

That's where the doorstop comes in

No honestly I have no experience with such short cables myself.. always went for off-the-shelf.

Just about the only legitimate use of a doorstop in audio

 

[Reyer]

Available in Europe for £109 from hifiheadphones.co.uk

Yep, for EU this is steal ... Starting to regret now getting it directly from USA, but it was long time ago ...

Even then, It was a tad cheaper to import it directly from USA in my case (Poland).

£109+£19 (shipping) = $169.11 and then you would have to get a plug adapter (They're shipping with the UK plug only and I needed the EU one) for another £5 = $175.75

$137+$137*19% (VAT) = $163 without additional costs.

 

[Veri]

Even then, It was a tad cheaper to import it directly from USA in my case (Poland).

£109+£19 (shipping) = $169.11 and then you would have to get a plug adapter (They're shipping with the UK plug only and I needed the EU one) for another £5 = $175.75

$137+$137*19% (VAT) = $163 without additional costs.

So, rather cheap to have EU warranty

 

[bakker_be]

Even then, It was a tad cheaper to import it directly from USA in my case (Poland).

£109+£19 (shipping) = $169.11 and then you would have to get a plug adapter (They're shipping with the UK plug only and I needed the EU one) for another £5 = $175.75

$137+$137*19% (VAT) = $163 without additional costs.

I bought it from https://shop.strato.de/epages/63028...Products/JDSATOMAMP/SubProducts/JDSATOMAMP-bk, €166, shipping and EU-adapter included.

 

[Reyer]

I bought it from https://shop.strato.de/epages/63028...Products/JDSATOMAMP/SubProducts/JDSATOMAMP-bk, €166, shipping and EU-adapter included.

Yeah, which is even worse

 

[bakker_be]

Yeah, which is even worse
View attachment 23010

I don't live in the US, nor in the UK, so I don't count in Dollars nor Pounds. 166€ seems an acceptable price to me compared to other options, taking into account:

• quality of the device
• speed of delivery
• reduced distance of transport, and hence reduced risk of loss/damage
• EU warranty, which with Brexit looming isn't a given for a UK-based seller
• the "lottery" nature of assorted import and other taxes in Belgium

 

[ishmeister]

But the warranty is not with the retailer in the UK (except for the initial 30 days to cover defective goods). It is with JDS in the US (for 2 years).

 

[bakker_be]

But the warranty is not with the retailer in the UK (except for the initial 30 days to cover defective goods). It is with JDS in the US (for 2 years).

No, that's not true. European warranty law states that a merchant must give a 2-year warranty to the end-user, regardless of factory warranty. In this case, European resellers for JDS are lucky, as they can fall back on the factory warranty. Audiophonics on the other hand have no such luck with their Topping sales.
This particular quirk of European warranty laws is why I stopped selling computer hardware to private persons. Most hardware came with only one year of factory warranty and I wasn't willing to take the risk.

 

[ishmeister]

No, that's not true. European warranty law states that a merchant must give a 2-year warranty to the end-user, regardless of factory warranty. In this case, European resellers for JDS are lucky, as they can fall back on the factory warranty. Audiophonics on the other hand have no such luck with their Topping sales.
This particular quirk of European warranty laws is why I stopped selling computer hardware to private persons. Most hardware came with only one year of factory warranty and I wasn't willing to take the risk.

So I checked this out and it does appear to be true. It is an EU directive. Not very well known about in the UK as it is superceded here by UK laws.

 

[PorchSong]

Looking at that picture I'd say these cables are too stiff. The rear feet of the topmost device are lifted up ...

Well, here are pics of the RCA's with my Topping D50 on top of the Aune X7s. I also have the JDS Atom Amp, and the D50 sits tight on that too. The D50 is a solid DAC so it does have a little heft to it. But I really cannot express how great these cables are--they ooze quality.

 

[la2ygoo]

Hi,amirm
When you do Distortion vs Power test,you use Atom's knob control volume or digital？

Would you measure Atom as preamp？

I want to know which way is better to reduce the volume, digital volume control or Atom as preamp use knob?

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-of-schiit-sys-passive-pre-amp-switcher.2335/

I read this measurements , passive preamp is worse than digital volume control , I think they are useless.

 

[amirm]

Hi,amirm
When you do Distortion vs Power test,you use Atom's knob control volume or digital？

Neither. I set the volume to max and vary the analog input level and measure the output power. For DAC+amps I vary the digital level but Atom is analog only.

 

[amirm]

I want to know which way is better to reduce the volume, digital volume control or Atom as preamp use knob?

This is a project on my TODO list.

 

[bakker_be]

Well, here are pics of the RCA's with my Topping D50 on top of the Aune X7s. I also have the JDS Atom Amp, and the D50 sits tight on that too. The D50 is a solid DAC so it does have a little heft to it. But I really cannot express how great these cables are--they ooze quality.

They should use your picture on their product page, it shows off the product way better than their own

 

[JJB70]

I finally bought one of these and am delighted. Personally I still wish they'd used a metal case and put a bit more effort into making it feel nicer but it is astonishingly good value and way beyond the point of diminishing returns. In strictly SQ terms I honestly cannot see any reason to spend any more on a headphone amplifier. I have used it with my Beyerdynamic T5P II, Oppo PM-2, Sony MDR Z7 and ancient Sennheiser HD580 headphones and it drives all of them to ear destroying volume with ease with heaps of room to spare. On DACs, it is such a mature technology and many devices have built in DACs which are audibly transparent that again I really don't see any reason to spend much on a DAC in strictly SQ terms. I find with my cell phone and tablet and even my Dell work issue laptop that the limiting factor is the headphone output, not the DAC, all three have perfectly adequate DACs. My phone actually has a good headphone output within its power limits but hearing protection regulations mean it is a bit anaemic for some headphones. My tablet is fine too but also a bit anaemic. The odd one is my laptop, that has a seriously powerful headphone output.