My Atom got delivered yesterday. I was using a Gen 3 Schiit stack as my primary headphone driving system for several months. After a few hours of listening I can confidently say the Atom outclasses the Magni in just about every way. I did A/B using the Modi as DAC for both and the Atom was consistently cleaner, had greater resolution and tonality, and managed both a wider souundstage and sharper imaging. Plus, it reduced the shoutiness problem I was having that I’ve written about in another thread. The Magni seems to be rougher and more mid-forward whereas the Atom seems to be very neutral. None of this is to say the Magni is bad - it most certainly isn’t bad - it’s just not the Atom. Well done, JDS Labs.
Could be you’ve had mostly ones with more harmonic distortion, which can tilt the sound toward bright/shrill (kind of like what you just said about the Schiit stack). In this case the relative “darkness” on the iFi could be exactly that elusive “cleanliness” you weren’t sure was there.
Has anyone heard both the Micro Black Label and the Atom and can comment on the sound differences?
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Than a Khadas tone board? I don’t have any firsthand experience with both, but both those DACs measure very well. I couldn’t Imagine that there would be any audible difference.
FWIW, I stacked a Topping D10 with a JDS atom and didn’t hear any difference between it and a Tone Board. This is in a comparison by memory, mind you, not A/B testing.
I don’t know if that says more about the inaudibility of the differences between quality DACs, or my poor critical listening skills. Either way…
Oh, and if you’re trying to replicate my setup above, I changed the red USB cable to a black Amazon Basics cable. I’ve found that it really reduces the magnetic resonances in the third and fifth harmonics, and reduces inter-modulation distortion in the -3 to -5 decibel range.
IIRC, the D10 is another good dac the measures well. There’s something about inverting polarity over on asr though. I really don’t know what it all means lol
You had me for a second there… 
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Amps don’t sound different
This is a subjective statement stated as if it were an objective fact. I rarely hear differences between amps myself, but there are some that definitely stand out. I heard a Liquid Spark awhile back and that was very different. It had a lot more warmth to it than I’ve heard from just about anything else. Mind you, I mostly agree that I don’t hear differences between amps and I believe that most people just like to make wild exaggerations to participate in the mythology we build up around these products, but there are bound to be exceptions to such ironclad statements as yours.
I agree completely. The magni 3 I had was good, but the atom is a definite improvement.
This is literally a false statement and not subjective. Some amps sound super similar and it’s hard to tell the difference. Some amps sound completely different. Compare a tube amp and solid state amp and report back. Some amps are SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED to change the sound.
Sigh. I don’t mind opinions, but false, ignorant statements like this are annoying.
In a world where tubes and DSP exist I’m sure he was joking
Hope so. Super hard to tell.
I was being sarcastic
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Thought so!
Though you have to admit Wuzzapi, people have said sillier things on forums like this and meant it! 
It’s so hard to tell lol
There’s people out there that actually believe that all amps sound the same…
My bad. It was hard to tell.
Put a pile of schiit on my atom today:
One modi 3 handles the PC; I split the signal with amazonbasics rca splitter cables going to the atom and the sys, then sys to my vanatoo t0s so I can listen to the speakers without unplugging my headphones. Since the sys has two inputs, the input select effectively acts as a mute button; I just change it to the other input, which isn’t hooked up, and no sound comes through.
Since the knob I ordered for the atom a while back came in a two-pack, I decided to put the other knob on the sys. Very easy, just like the atom; pull the stock knob off, put the new one on, secure it with the set screw.
The other modi is used for my consoles; all those are plugged into my hdmi matrix, which has optical out. Optical goes to the second modi and output goes to my PC’s line in via rca to 3.5mm cable. That way I can get console audio and pc audio at the same time, at the best quality I can muster.
I’m not done with my pile of schiit just yet; I’ll be adding a loki to the stack pretty soon.
The stream deck mini I use for a bunch of things, but I set up an audio controls page for foobar. Works great.
Also, lightdims are awesome. I bought the silver ones to tone down the leds on the modis and they do the job nicely. They’re pretty close in color too; you have to be real close to notice them.
I’m set on audio gear for a good while now. I have everything as I wanted and sounding great.
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From the manual:
To ensure an optimal noise floor,
always position headphone amplifiers as
far away as possible from wireless devices.
I see they include this remark for their more expensive models as well, but I have to wonder… with that plastic housing… if it isn’t suddenly much more relevant here.
Has anyone heard any problems using the Atom too close to some phone or Bluetooth device or anything?
Mine is near my wifi router, phone, cca and no issues with noise or interference. Probably just a typical precaution to cover the bases.
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does JDSL have a DAC they hope you pair to the Atom…like they do the EL DAC and EL Amp?
At this time they do not.