Review and Measurements of New JDS Labs Atom Headphone Amp

[Jimbob54]

How does it pair with the AKG 712 pro? Enough power?

I'm running the audio technica r70 nicely and they are 400 ohms. Should be fine. But I'll try my k701 on it in the morning

 

[leyo96]

I'm running the audio technica r70 nicely and they are 400 ohms. Should be fine. But I'll try my k701 on it in the morning

Great, thanks!

 

[Jimbob54]

Great, thanks!

Drives the K701 fine. 9 o clock on low gain, then to high if you want louder. (for me)

 

[Marcel]

How does it pair with the AKG 712 pro? Enough power?

Yes, more than enough!

 

[CerealKiller]

Yes, more than enough!

View attachment 61804

E30 + Atom stack! Can we get a pic of that alignment ?

 

[leyo96]

Yes, more than enough!

View attachment 61804

I bought it but for now I'm sticking to my mobo dac. I'll get a dac at a later time

 

[Marcel]

E30 + Atom stack! Can we get a pic of that alignment ?

Hope this helps:

E30 fits nicely on top of Atom imo.

 

[magicscreen]

I did get some translucent amber tape from an auto parts store for busted turn signal lamps. I cut and applied it to the back of the white plastic diffuser to color match my D10.

Did you have to disassemble the Atom for that?
Is it has a warmer sound now?

 

[BolusOfDoom]

Did you have to disassemble the Atom for that

I took the top off mine to apply the tape behind the diffuser. I first tried taking off the knob and applying the tape from the front, but it didn’t look as good because it was harder to apply the tape evenly and tuck it inside the case.

Is it has a warmer sound now?

Warm as the Devil’s armpit.

 

[Jimbob54]

E30 + Atom stack! Can we get a pic of that alignment ?

Pervert! ;-)

 

[CerealKiller]

In love

Hope this helps:

View attachment 61825
View attachment 61826
View attachment 61827
View attachment 61828

E30 fits nicely on top of Atom imo.

Fits perfectly.

I asked because i would like to replace the dx3 in my actual stack, the feet do get inside the atom rooftop but its still a little larger
View attachment IMG_20200505_065257.jpgView attachment IMG_20200505_065241.jpg

 

[ishmeister]

In love

Fits perfectly.

I asked because i would like to replace the dx3 in my actual stack, the feet do get inside the atom rooftop but its still a little larger
View attachment 61963View attachment 61964

D50(s) is what you want for best stackability with Atom. It also pins the Atom down weighing in at 0.5kg.

 

[CerealKiller]

D50(s) is what you want for best stackability with Atom. It also pins the Atom down weighing in at 0.5kg.

yeah.... but $200 is kinda overbudget for me, besides the orange segment led display is waaaay cooler. D10 was my first option, got it, and sadly it does not perform. It's unusable due to horrendus groud loop (or USB bus noise, yet to be determined). So DX3 was on hand.

 

[pevzi]

So much has already been said about Atom's volume pot imbalance, and I expected it to be a long solved problem. But unfortunately the unit I received around the New Year still suffers from this issue.

From what I can hear, the imbalance is kept within the given specs, that is, it doesn't seem to exceed 0.6 dB. But I honestly didn't expect it to be this noticeable. I must admit, it doesn't bother me much while I'm listening to music (in fact, it took me about a month to discover it), but it's quite obvious with mono audio like speech in YouTube videos. The balance is off to the left throughout the lower half of the pot, up until around 12 o'clock; after that it gets negligible. I added a -0.4 dB gain to the left channel in Equalizer APO with the intention of finding some middle ground where it's not noticeable either way, but it's still not quite perfect.

I'm somewhat disappointed with this situation, since in every other regard Atom is pretty much flawless. I don't even mind the plastic case; if anything, I'd say it looks pretty sleek. But the channel imbalance is like the single audible thing that Atom failed to get right. This seems ironic, given that we all pick it for perfect performance across the board, even though most of its measurements are far below any audibility thresholds (which is still an impressive feat, nonetheless).

 

[solderdude]

Each volume pot is different.
The problem is the size of the resistance track (its a small potmeter) mechanical tolerances and volpot position.
The only way to make the problem smaller is by selecting potmeters and binning those that perform poorly.
This is manual labour and increases costs/lowers profit or increases the selling price.

It is what it is. Use it on lowest gain setting. Switch to higher gains when you reach the max setting yet still want louder.
An option is to use digital attenuation to get out of the lower volume adjsutment range.
Above 9'o clock channel imbalance should not be an issue.

 

[ishmeister]

So much has already been said about Atom's volume pot imbalance, and I expected it to be a long solved problem. But unfortunately the unit I received around the New Year still suffers from this issue.

From what I can hear, the imbalance is kept within the given specs, that is, it doesn't seem to exceed 0.6 dB. But I honestly didn't expect it to be this noticeable. I must admit, it doesn't bother me much while I'm listening to music (in fact, it took me about a month to discover it), but it's quite obvious with mono audio like speech in YouTube videos. The balance is off to the left throughout the lower half of the pot, up until around 12 o'clock; after that it gets negligible. I added a -0.4 dB gain to the left channel in Equalizer APO with the intention of finding some middle ground where it's not noticeable either way, but it's still not quite perfect.

I'm somewhat disappointed with this situation, since in every other regard Atom is pretty much flawless. I don't even mind the plastic case; if anything, I'd say it looks pretty sleek. But the channel imbalance is like the single audible thing that Atom failed to get right. This seems ironic, given that we all pick it for perfect performance across the board, even though most of its measurements are far below any audibility thresholds (which is still an impressive feat, nonetheless).

My imbalance becomes unnoticeable at around 10 o'clock. Tested with an ER4XR (matched to within 1 dB). If you have sensitive headphones maybe try turning up the amp and lower the DAC volume control.

 

[SimpleTheater]

Anyone who owns the JDS Atom, is there an On/Off switch. From the pictures it looks like it may be always on, but I'd like to confirm.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Anyone who owns the JDS Atom, is there an On/Off switch. From the pictures it looks like it may be always on, but I'd like to confirm.

The switch is in the pot.

 

[Timbo2]

I have an Atom and I upgraded from Topping D10 to a D50s primarily for the ability to be able to attenuate volume. (Surprising few here I couldn't tell a sonic difference despite the much better specs.)

I don't have an issue with channel balance over most range of the volume pot, but I needed it for IEMs. Not so much for balance but for useful volume range even at 1x gain.

If you are a purist you could put the volume at 100% and use a DAC to fully control the volume., but I find I much prefer spinning a knob to stepping through a range of digital volume.

 

[Veri]

Anyone who owns the JDS Atom, is there an On/Off switch. From the pictures it looks like it may be always on, but I'd like to confirm.

Like John stated, the lowest level of the knob is the off switch