Both, depends on your gain settings.
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Review and Measurements of New JDS Labs Atom Headphone Amp
- Thread starter amirm
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Even though you said it's acceptable for you. But it's actually pretty shit. Any pot that can't guarantee balance at 9 o'clock is shit. With good ones, if you are lucky you can get at 8 o'clock or even from the very beginning.
using my HD600's with Khadas TB and the Atom on low gain, I find that I'm at 12 o'clock max with most albums and no more than 1 o'clock with any album on Tidal. Just received my Etymotic ER4SR earphones today and I find that max volume is between 11 o'clock and 12 o'clock - so far...
by comparison the less expensive and more sensitive Etymotic ER3SR earphones max out between 9 o'clock and 10 o'clock. Despite the low setting on the volume control I don't notice any channel imbalance. The ER3SR will now be used only for traveling - the difference between the two Ety's is more obvious than I expected.
by comparison the less expensive and more sensitive Etymotic ER3SR earphones max out between 9 o'clock and 10 o'clock. Despite the low setting on the volume control I don't notice any channel imbalance. The ER3SR will now be used only for traveling - the difference between the two Ety's is more obvious than I expected.
AresHarvest
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I think we can calculate it by multiplying the stated max input voltage in high gain (2.1 V, according to the manual) by the gain factor in high gain (4.5x according to the product page). Giving us ~9.45 Vrms.
mt196
Active Member
Thanks a lot
It's strange, the RCA output of my Atom does not work.
Any suggestions?
Any suggestions?
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mt196
Active Member
If you unplug the front hardphones jack, the back rca do not work?
Subharmonic
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Can someone answer this question - it may already have been answered bu I didn't find the answer in the 49 pages here...
Which is the better connection to the Atom - RCA, or minijack with regards to maintaining the best signal into the amp?
Or are the differences negligible?
And, can anyone here suggest which outs I should use from my soundcard to connect to the Atom?
I'm running an EMU 1820m soundcard/breakout box - and plan on getting an Atom, as I'm unsatisfied by the headphone amp of the 1820m.
The 1820m seems very bright - or weak - I'm not sure.
I've been using a pair of MDR SA5000 cans with it, and a set of Ultrasone Proline 650 - and both of these cans sound very bright out of the 1820m.
That said - when I run my in ear earphones ( SE215, SE115, Sennheiser CX100_ the lack of bass isn't so evident.
Which made me think that the amp was just not cutting it with my larger cans.
So - I'm thinking the Atom would be a decent choice for no fuss, uncoloured amplification.
(I use cans to mix/produce on - hence want uncoloured sound).
The 1820m has a few different output options - it has 4 pairs of balanced line level outs (I'm using one pair for my monitors) - and four 3.5mm minijack port outs. I'm assuming I'd use one of the minijack outs to send to the Atom, rather than one of the balanced pairs?
Or would I be better using the balanced outs?
I don't know which would be the optimum connection type from the 1820m to the Atom - and thus which cables should I get...
Any advice would be great...
Which is the better connection to the Atom - RCA, or minijack with regards to maintaining the best signal into the amp?
Or are the differences negligible?
And, can anyone here suggest which outs I should use from my soundcard to connect to the Atom?
I'm running an EMU 1820m soundcard/breakout box - and plan on getting an Atom, as I'm unsatisfied by the headphone amp of the 1820m.
The 1820m seems very bright - or weak - I'm not sure.
I've been using a pair of MDR SA5000 cans with it, and a set of Ultrasone Proline 650 - and both of these cans sound very bright out of the 1820m.
That said - when I run my in ear earphones ( SE215, SE115, Sennheiser CX100_ the lack of bass isn't so evident.
Which made me think that the amp was just not cutting it with my larger cans.
So - I'm thinking the Atom would be a decent choice for no fuss, uncoloured amplification.
(I use cans to mix/produce on - hence want uncoloured sound).
The 1820m has a few different output options - it has 4 pairs of balanced line level outs (I'm using one pair for my monitors) - and four 3.5mm minijack port outs. I'm assuming I'd use one of the minijack outs to send to the Atom, rather than one of the balanced pairs?
Or would I be better using the balanced outs?
I don't know which would be the optimum connection type from the 1820m to the Atom - and thus which cables should I get...
Any advice would be great...
Thank you! it was that! I was getting crazy.
mt196
Active Member
I hear a hiss when turning up the volume using speakers (I have an AMS0100 as speaker amp and Topping D30 as DAC), it didn't produce any hiss before I bought the Atom. Could it be a ground loop problem? I have the PC and the Anaview hooked to the UPS ( I did that because I had a ground loop when the Anaview was connected elsewhere and the PC to the UPS), should I also connect the D30 and Atom to it to avoid any ground loop? I am asking instead of trying it because I have to buy the 4th IEC plug to do so (I am using 3 out of 4 available on the UPS right now). It is a PowerWalker 1000VA "Pure Sine Wave" (I doubt it is really exactly pure)
I believe the difference is negligible. However, there is one thing I notice. Maybe this is related to electric leakage of my laptop (very slight shock when touching ports on laptop).
Whenever I connect line out from e10k to Bose Soundlink mini 2 aux port and touching the metal case of that speaker while playing. It will produce extreme amount of noise/hissing and I feel slight shock. Probably this is duo to my Soundlink since I have never feel electric shock on the other devices with metal case (D10 and e10k for example), but the main point here is there are problems with the current passing through cable because it is enough to make me shocked.
When connecting e10k to 3.5 port on Atom amp, there will be background hissing even at the lowest volume. However, if I connect e10k line out to aux-RCA converter and then using Atom RCA port, the noise just disappear. (3.5 cable -> adapter -> RCA )
Now lets change the dac to Topping D10, there is absolutely no hissing to matter which port I use on the Atom. (D10 RCA -> Atom 3.5/ RCA).
I guess that whenever RCA cables present in your interconnect, It will help avoid issues with electric or signal.
Subharmonic
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Ok - so RCA is maybe the best option for the INs into the Atom?
What about the outputs from my soundcard? Minjack or one of the balanced pair outs?
What about the outputs from my soundcard? Minjack or one of the balanced pair outs?
MRC01
Major Contributor
My JDS Atom arrived yesterday. I bought an Element a few years ago, so JDS threw in a free t-shirt with my order.
The Atom sounds great - clean, at least as clean as the Element, with more power than I'll ever use. It is the best $100 bucks of sound I've heard. Yet its light & flimsy build quality using cheap plastic knobs & switches makes it an unusual bundle of contrasts, makes me question its long-term durability. The Element has higher build quality and materials. The Atom's RCA line outputs only activate when the headphones are not plugged in. This is less convenient than the Element, whose RCA line outputs activate when it's turned off.
The channel balance shifts to the L at very low volume settings, but only near the lowest end of the range. Using low gain with my LCD-2 I'm around 9:00 to 12:00 on the knob where it sounds well balanced.
The Atom is definitely king of the sound quality per $$ value. Now all JDS needs is a headphone image processor for those recordings having absolute L-R separation that are annoying to listen to on headphones.
The Atom sounds great - clean, at least as clean as the Element, with more power than I'll ever use. It is the best $100 bucks of sound I've heard. Yet its light & flimsy build quality using cheap plastic knobs & switches makes it an unusual bundle of contrasts, makes me question its long-term durability. The Element has higher build quality and materials. The Atom's RCA line outputs only activate when the headphones are not plugged in. This is less convenient than the Element, whose RCA line outputs activate when it's turned off.
The channel balance shifts to the L at very low volume settings, but only near the lowest end of the range. Using low gain with my LCD-2 I'm around 9:00 to 12:00 on the knob where it sounds well balanced.
The Atom is definitely king of the sound quality per $$ value. Now all JDS needs is a headphone image processor for those recordings having absolute L-R separation that are annoying to listen to on headphones.
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What do you mean? Seems interesting.
Like sending L + p% * R to the L channel and vice versa? You can do that with EqualizerAPO.
MRC01
Major Contributor
That's the basic idea. More generally, a spatial processor would also add a small phase delay, and only apply this effect at frequencies that are different in L vs. R channels. So it would have no effect on a mono signal, or content that is centered in stereo.
I've listened to several different implementations of this over the years. Many sound artificial and veil the music with side effects like comb filtering. One of the best I've heard that minimizes those side effects is from Jan Meier: http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/crossfeed.htm. He has this in his own amps and licensed it to Grace who implemented it in their M901 - M920 products. I've also heard some DSP implementations, but not a really good one.
Anyone whose music library is broad enough inevitably includes recordings having this absolute L-R separation. I wish an image processor like this were a standard feature of headphone amps. Even if you leave it off most of the time, it's nice to have for those occasional recordings that need it.
I've listened to several different implementations of this over the years. Many sound artificial and veil the music with side effects like comb filtering. One of the best I've heard that minimizes those side effects is from Jan Meier: http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/crossfeed.htm. He has this in his own amps and licensed it to Grace who implemented it in their M901 - M920 products. I've also heard some DSP implementations, but not a really good one.
Anyone whose music library is broad enough inevitably includes recordings having this absolute L-R separation. I wish an image processor like this were a standard feature of headphone amps. Even if you leave it off most of the time, it's nice to have for those occasional recordings that need it.
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Yes, forgot to mention the delay. I was actually trying that with IEM (and found it very impressive) when I made a bad move on the computer and had the digital volume suddendly at 100, which painfully blasted my ears for 2 seconds. I will do more testing when tinitus goes away.
With a JDS Atom with a volume knob that kind of thing is less bound to happen.
What delay do you apply?
With a JDS Atom with a volume knob that kind of thing is less bound to happen.
What delay do you apply?
MRC01
Major Contributor
Another one is Art Pepper's 1978 album No Limit, which has the drums and bass entirely in the R, the piano entirely in the L, and sax centered. It sounds weird on speakers, and uncomfortably annoying on headphones.
Several of Pierre Sprey's Mapleshade recordings also have this extreme separation. He records live to 2-track using PZM surface mics mounted on a big wedge, which creates artificially hard L-R separation.
At standard temperature, sound travels just over 1' per millisecond and our ears are typically just over 1/2' apart. So the max interaural delay would be roughly 500 microseconds, and I'd expect about half that or 250 microsecs to be typical max, or less down to 0 depending on how far off center a sound is located. But that's just a WAG.
Several of Pierre Sprey's Mapleshade recordings also have this extreme separation. He records live to 2-track using PZM surface mics mounted on a big wedge, which creates artificially hard L-R separation.
At standard temperature, sound travels just over 1' per millisecond and our ears are typically just over 1/2' apart. So the max interaural delay would be roughly 500 microseconds, and I'd expect about half that or 250 microsecs to be typical max, or less down to 0 depending on how far off center a sound is located. But that's just a WAG.
Get a hearing test
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Forgot to post this here. Heres my impression going from onboard to standalone atom amp. MInd you the weak link is still onboard dac.
Bass has its own place now rather than just giving an impression of it. Better instrument spacing and tone separation. No distortion even on tracks that have layers upon layers of sounds. Off the top of my head one by archive-bullets, towards the end it used to get distorted and non intelligible (everything muddled together) that it's actually funny. Cant believe an amp makes that much of a difference and i dont even have a an external dac yet.
What surprised me is that the added clarity made me notice new things in songs ive listened hundreds of times, i did some a\b testing and going back i can hear more or less the same stuff but it's like good 30-50% worse on onboard to be fair. Mobo dac must be still outputting a weak signal to the amp but even that gets amped really cleanly i didnt expect that big of an increase in audio quality and i went in expecting pretty much nothing.
There are cons though. Now since higher tones arent just cut off and things stand out by themselves on a track, it fatigues me way more... But now a good week+ later it doesn't bother me nearly as much. Expect a dac that feeds 2v clean data to amp to improve audio by another 10-20%. Onboard sound is good for what it is but it's nowhere near as lively.
Bass has its own place now rather than just giving an impression of it. Better instrument spacing and tone separation. No distortion even on tracks that have layers upon layers of sounds. Off the top of my head one by archive-bullets, towards the end it used to get distorted and non intelligible (everything muddled together) that it's actually funny. Cant believe an amp makes that much of a difference and i dont even have a an external dac yet.
What surprised me is that the added clarity made me notice new things in songs ive listened hundreds of times, i did some a\b testing and going back i can hear more or less the same stuff but it's like good 30-50% worse on onboard to be fair. Mobo dac must be still outputting a weak signal to the amp but even that gets amped really cleanly i didnt expect that big of an increase in audio quality and i went in expecting pretty much nothing.
There are cons though. Now since higher tones arent just cut off and things stand out by themselves on a track, it fatigues me way more... But now a good week+ later it doesn't bother me nearly as much. Expect a dac that feeds 2v clean data to amp to improve audio by another 10-20%. Onboard sound is good for what it is but it's nowhere near as lively.
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