[warbles]

Atom doesn't add much coloration to the DA3, that is the great thing about it. If you are using iems or easy to drive headphones, DA3 is sufficient (I love its balanced out btw). If you add Atom to the chain, you will just get more power, thus more volume and control to your drivers.

May I ask how one gets to use the balanced output? Is that just a matter of acquiring the smaller plug to fit in there? The only cable that came with unit was for the unbalanced jack. Also, of course, what difference does the balanced output make to the sound, and why are the jack sizes different, anyway? Yours in hopeless ignorance, Warbles

 

[warbles]

Well that uses a sabre dac and the newer sabre in my dac still sounds bright when compared to the akm in my fiio q5 so I kinda know(maybe?). The atom doesn't sound nearly as bright on the q5 vs the smsl su-8 I mostly listen to which is my desktop setup. Idk if that helps at all.

ahh..so all these amps use the very same Sabre DAC? JDS, Monoprice, and Sabaj?

 

[PointyFox]

Can one of you guys test this issue of channel imbalance for me?

I am playing this song and only get audio in the left channel at first. As it goes on it balances out:


Other songs so far i have not produced the same results, however this same song does the same thing on another video here:


Yet on this video of the same song, i cannot reproduce the same results:


Anyone able to elaborate on what is going on here? I understand youtube has very sketchy quality so i am hoping that is all it is.

lol. That's the way they're recorded. Also you have your left and right mixed up.

 

[corgifall]

ahh..so all these amps use the very same Sabre DAC? JDS, Monoprice, and Sabaj?

Sabaj da3 is a dac/amp combo. Jds atom and liquid spark are only headphone amps. Feeding them via the da3 would actually be using the Sabre dac in the da3 and the amp of your choice. Since I don’t see a dedicated line out on da3 you would just have to set the da3 to max volume when feeding the signal from it to a headphone amp. With the atom you would only need a 3.5 to 3.5 aux cord and for the liquid spark you would need a 3.5 male to rca cable.

 

[warbles]

Sabaj da3 is a dac/amp combo. Jds atom and liquid spark are only headphone amps. Feeding them via the da3 would actually be using the Sabre dac in the da3 and the amp of your choice. Since I don’t see a dedicated line out on da3 you would just have to set the da3 to max volume when feeding the signal from it to a headphone amp. With the atom you would only need a 3.5 to 3.5 aux cord and for the liquid spark you would need a 3.5 male to rca cable.

thanks for this! I'm looking at the DA3 and there is ONLY the USB cable that goes from back of unit to source and the two bal & unbal output jacks on the front! How would I then feed the signal to another amp? I asked the Sabaj store on Ali but their communications in english are very limited

 

[corgifall]

thanks for this! I'm looking at the DA3 and there is ONLY the USB cable that goes from back of unit to source and the two bal & unbal output jacks on the front! How would I then feed the signal to another amp? I asked the Sabaj store on Ali but their communications in english are very limited

You would just feed the signal from the 3.5 jack on the da3 to a headphone amp via a aux cable or 3.5 to rca cable. I would start at 80% volume on the da3 and if you don’t hear any distortion sound wise try it at max volume. The goal is to get as much volume feeding to the headphone amp without it sounding all distorted.

 

[warbles]

You would just feed the signal from the 3.5 jack on the da3 to a headphone amp via a aux cable or 3.5 to rca cable. I would start at 80% volume on the da3 and if you don’t hear any distortion sound wise try it at max volume. The goal is to get as much volume feeding to the headphone amp without it sounding all distorted.

so to experiment with my present amp only, a Topping NX1s, I just run an aux cable from the front unbalanced jack of DA3 to the input jack on the Topping where source normally goes? Then run my 'phones from the Topping?

 

[PointyFox]

Liquid spark is more laid back and gives you a warm fuzzy feeling when listening to music, jds atom will blow you away with detail and maybe cause treble murder to your ears depending on the cans used with them. For iems I like the liquid spark more. For normal over ears I think the atom wins. My roommate loves his treble so he loves the atom. I'm not a fan of super bright sounding signatures for normal listening and the atom ever so slightly breaks past that line once in awhile for me.

How can an amp be "bright" when it has perfectly flat frequency response?

 

[corgifall]

How can an amp be "bright" when it has perfectly flat frequency response?

That's what my ears are hearing when listening to the atom vs others off both a fiio q5 and smsl su-8 dac. I don't believe I'm the first to say the atom is ever so slightly bright either. It's not "game breaking" but it does eat into what I feel is a little too much at times.

 

[corgifall]

so to experiment with my present amp only, a Topping NX1s, I just run an aux cable from the front unbalanced jack of DA3 to the input jack on the Topping where source normally goes? Then run my 'phones from the Topping?

Yup! That would be a good way to test it.

 

[Spareribs]

Good stuff.

 

[APK000]

I am planning to get one of this toy. It must be interesting. I've heard that in low gain mode the output of this amplifier at maximum volume won't decrease the thd+n from the dac.

 

[onslash]

How can an amp be "bright" when it has perfectly flat frequency response?

because people as so used too amp that is not as revealing , thus they hear details = bright. atom can be too transparent for some genre of music.

 

[onslash]

I am planning to get one of this toy. It must be interesting. I've heard that in low gain mode the output of this amplifier at maximum volume won't decrease the thd+n from the dac.

depends on your dac. there is a calculator out there to calculate these kind of things.

 

[PointyFox]

I've seen DACs do two things:

1. Roll off treble.
2. Not roll off treble.

I guess #2 seems bright to some people.