My Atom is out for delivery! I’ll be comparing it to Schiit Vali 2 and Garage 1217 Project Polaris to find out which of the three are going to my wife’s office 
I’m hoping Atom will sound cleaner than both, as neither one was built to have impressive measurements.
it’s not really fair to compare a solid state against a tube amp though…tube amps are completely different have a sound profile unto their own, while a solid state amp should do nothing to the sound other than amplify.
Depends on how its designed. Certain solid states are designed to follow a house sound of the brand, or have a specific tone. Most try to go for a transparent sound, but there are others that try and create a sound signature to their amps with solid state.
interesting. who are some that use solid state amps with a goal of creating their own sound profile? it would seem that’s a bad idea being headphones vary in sound profiles…unless you mean something along the lines of a Sennheiser amp having a profile with expectation its used with their headphones or something?
This is off topic of the JDS but here’s what I’m talking about (although with speaker amps for simplicity’s sake)
When certain designers design an amplifier, they may prioritize certain sonic qualities that make the amp more pleasing to them, rather then design for the best possible specification. For example I’m just going to take my parasound halo a21+. I also own parasound 2125v2’s. The halo a21+ has a warmer character with slightly rolled off highs and more body then neutral. It was purposely designed this way by the designer (John Curl) to make what sounded best to him (or what he thought others would enjoy). The Halo line of parasound tends to follow the more warm sound signature that they are known for. Now, talking about the 2125v2’s, they were designed to be just neutral and take what was coming in and give it back out without much change. These amps are commonly used in component systems, to be put in a rack or drawer for whole home installation. I personally think they are a great deal because they have excellent sound quality for the price. These do not have the same characteristic of the halo amps, because they were designed under a different usage case, as they were just meant to be as simple amplification as possible and retain as much quality as it can. While they are both made by parasound, they were designed with a different sonic goal in mind, and therefore have different sound quality characteristics, ignoring the upgraded parts used to make them.
Another good example of this is Audioquest and their dragonfly line. They have a specific house sound signature that they aim for, that many find pleasing (not a huge fan but they’re still intersting). They could have designed them for the best possible specification and the cleanest output, but instead they went out to make something that sounded good to their ears.
Edit: More prominent examples that comes to my mind are PS audio, Dynaco, McIntosh, and way more high end brands. They have to do something to differentiate themselves, otherwise the high end would be very very similar and boring (which some people already think this)
Project Polaris was designed to mimic the characteristics of tube amps, so it should sound a little messier than Atom. The designer, known as Solderdude at DIY Audio Heaven and other forums said that he doesn’t want Polaris to be reviewed at Audio Science Review because it would measure horribly, but he’s ok with that because he was chasing a sound, not measurements
Totally forgot about project polaris, really interesting amp concept, would want to hear one sometime.
Here’s the link to what I referred to
I really like mine, but knowing that there’s something else out there within my budget that is more “accurate” is driving me crazy.
I just wanted to share this as it’s a 3 week old post by JDS himself. I was checking to see if there has been any new developments from JDS Labs.
https://blog.jdslabs.com/2019/10/how-atom-amp-has-improved-in-2019/
So it looks like no metal atom in the pipeline. I’d love to see JDS release a THX amp though. If I’m going to ever upgrade to one of the THX amps (789, 887, 888) I’d rather it be from a US company I trust.
I really want to see JDSL release an Atom DAC companion for the amp!
Yeah, I’d love that too, though I’m perfectly happy with the schiit modi 3. It’s one of the best dacs available in the $100 range.
Frank, he mentioned a matching Atom DAC. Also. That would excite me, except I already have one. 
yes…he did, then commented how he regretted saying anything as it was only an idea and far from any sense of reality.
Well…I already have one. See?
I would love it if someone, or JDSL even, made a case identical to the Atom, that would fit the Khadas Tone Board.
For the 12 people that probably still want a KTB/Atom pairing, I don’t know if its worth it.
I actually asked John if they would sell me an Atom case, they sent me a couple of B-stock cases instead. There were some things that didn’t align well for the KTB for it to fit well using the back panel. I also had to saw off some of the internal support structures.
Ultimately I preferred to 3DP case instead.
yes…the issue would be a Atom case doesn’t have the proper front and rear panel cutouts. however, that wouldn’t be a hard thing to do if there was enough interest to have them make a run.
I wonder if anyone suggested doing a kickstarter campaign to see if there’s enough interest to do something like that.
The KTB is way overhyped. I highly doubt anyone would be able to tell the difference between it and most other well-performing $100 dacs. What they will notice: needing to buy or make a case for the KTB, lack of an optical input.