Yeah I was just messing around too much and double-amping. 2x possibilities of screwing up!
Plugging a headphone amp into crap is funny though.
My no-name Gateway motherboard’s soundcard sounds so… empty and soulless, lol.
Yeah, I plugged my echo dot into the JBL 104s so I can bluetooth into them and they sound good, but not great. Contemplating getting a dedicated dac for them, but they’re kitchen speakers, so I’m not sure I want to spend the money. Then again, I did catch the 104s on sale for $50 from B&H…
I fucking swear… being an audiophile is inexpensive.
You already have a Playstation 3?
-Buy a JDS Labs Atom
-Get the “PS3 to RCA cable you never used”
-Plug your PS3 to the JDS Labs Atom with it
-Go to YouTube, listen to “Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Ixtapa”
-Welcome to audiophile city.
And… obviously, it’s also a CD/DVD/Blu-Ray player with USB ports. I can’t find any measurements for the RCA out of the PS3. Apparently the chipset in the PS3 is a Cirrus CS4351-CZZ (ex-Wolfson). But come on… don’t bother. It’s Sony. Some PS1s had 95dB SNR… 25 years ago.
Anyway, listening to CDs right now. 
Edit: If anyone wants to try this, I had to set it to “dual audio output” (HDMI and RCA), otherwise… youtube worked, but not the ripped .wav files (?!).
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I’m in this “audio uncanny valley” again, where “everything sounds real but Sublime is not playing in my room”.
Yup, that’s how a new audiophile says “this DAC sounds clean” I guess, lol…
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Today’s thought: Maybe amps should just be called depth/width/detail multipliers…
That is all.
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A Atom amp and a Khadas tone board is a pretty tidy setup. if i ever need a secondary music station it will be this.
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Hi guys. I have a question I received my thx789 and I have the liquid spark. I can hear the difference between the amps. I want to know if the atom have similar sound like the thx789. I know people say it’s pretty close but i know I could tell the difference. Does the sound almost close enough or for example I could loss a little soundstage or clatiry or sparkle on the treble if I decide to buy the atom. I really like my thx 789 but the price make it difficult for me to keep.
I think the thx balanced is better sounding than the atom, but it does sound a bit similar with some headphones that aren’t balanced. I feel like the sp200 would be closer to the 789
The only balanced headphone I have is the hifiman Ananda. I bought the balanced cable from new Fantasia in Amazon. I think there is something wrong with the cable. Every headphone I tried sound thin and bright. I don’t like how they sound when I use the balance cable. The sp200 is a good choice but i bought the thx789 before drop start charging tax so it was 400$ and the sp200 with tax is like 285$ for ~120$ I think the thx 789 its worth it over the sp200.
Before I had the amiron home with the new Fantasia cable it sound thin and bright as well. The cable doesnt completely change the sound signature it’s seems to reduce the bass and add treble to the headphones.
It’s more the fact you are going balanced which makes the sound sometimes brighter. Also the 789 is a lightly more analytical leaning amp
I know. I like the thx 789 analytical. The balanced cable with and SE adapter to the liquid spark and the thx 789 through the SE sound the same bright and thin
hmmmm, well that’s strange then
One thing I am curious about because I have the jds labs atom and I DEFINTELY won’t upgrade anytime soon because I like it, but is the smsl sp200 noticeably better?
Cause I know it is in terms of powers and measurements, but how about how it sounds? How small the gap is?
On some headphones yeah but TBH the atom is really good and I would only consider upgrading if you need the extra power, or took a jump to a higher end headphone
Would you say the argons need that power over the liquid spark
I will say that if you can give the argon’s some more power it’s somewhat worthwhile
What about the sendy aiva’s ?
From what I saw some ppl had no issue runing it of the atom, but I’d like an enthusiast opinion.
The sendy is not really that hard to drive, so I don’t see a problem, should be plenty. The atom is a very high quality amp for the price
Also I’m glad I’m considered an enthusiast instead of an addict
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