About a month ago I bought the FX-Audio Dac-X6 on the strength of ZReviews on youtube. This was to drive my newly purchased Seinheiser HD6XX (HD650) headphones. The HD6XX headphones really veered me onto a slippery slope of looking into the world of audio gear. Previously I wasn't interested in audio much at all, and it wasn't until my $8 sony earphones broke that this whole avalanche of audio research began. I'd always been mildly dissatisfied with my audio so this was now the time to sort it.
Anyway, I found the Dac-X6 definitely boosted the low end of the HD6XX vs my laptop onboard (Realtek ALC668 chip), but the onboard had better mids and highs. Aagh! The Dac-X6 was also muddier in general, lacking crispness/clarity. Looking at audioscience review of the Dac-X6 I could see why I felt the treble wasn't so great!
Anyway, somewhat disgruntled, and wondering if this audio quality thing was all in my head, I figured I'd throw more money at this. I wanted best bang for buck audioscience-measurement-wise. So I ended up buying the Grace SDAC and this new-on-the-market JDS atom amp to see if better audio was really out there.
I just received the SDAC today and paired with the JDS Atom through 3.5mm (I have some shorty ebay Ghent audio RCA cables still coming) I am glad to report that spending an additional $153.94 USD does get you significantly better audio.
(SDAC $82.81 + JDS Atom $136.12, ouch shipping! less FX-Audio X6 $64.99)
Build wise the Atom Amp is a
very distant second to the Dac X6. The volume knob on the Atom is cheap and nasty with a plastic casting blemish and wobble, however the resistance of turning is all good. In the end I really don't care about the build so long as it doesn't break. I'm the type that'd probably settle for a cardboard case if the savings went to better audio quality.
The power brick that came with the Atom is clearly very high quality. It weighs a heck of a lot for the size. I'd gauge it weighs more than thirty X6 power bricks which feel completely empty.
Obviously given I've replaced the dac+amp I can't say the Atom gets the all credit for the audio improvement. I can say the SDAC+Atom sounds great to me, better than the Dac X6. The crispness is back with good treble and clear all round audio. Finally!
My feeling on the X6 is that it emphasized the low end more than SDAC+Atom, but it was in a slightly muddy way. Treble was really just 'not good'. The dac on the X6 might be fine, I can't say as I haven't tested separately.
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