the KTB is very neutral, transparent, clear and uncolored. it’s one of the most boring DAC’s out there, but because of those attributes, gives it amazing value.
Yeah I agree, its a project and for people are willing to go put in the extra for not much in return, in comparison to other DACs. With that said, I still like mine, and I won’t hesitate to pre-order V2 KTB if it ever comes out.
Pretty much like other $100 dacs that review well (modi 3, topping d30 or d10, smsl sanskrit 10th, etc.). I’m not downplaying the KTB at all, but the $100 dac space is very crowded and very competitive.
the KTB achieves neutrality in almost everything…it doesn’t taint the sound as the other DAC’s discussed do…providing warmth or coolness or some variation due to their ‘house sound’.
Kinda, but it’s not completely neutral. Still very good though
Today’s news:
If you’ve been looking for a metal version of Atom Amp, Element II adopts the core amplifier technology in a CNC milled, aluminum chassis.
Element II dac+amp
Edit: Also, EL amp II and EL dac II released, too.
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Evidence of this besides ASR graphs?
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Can the Atom power the HD 6XX from Massdrop or needs something more powerful?
The atom can do it all day, no problem
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sound is subjective MM and the consensus is that it’s neutral, uncolored, clear and transparent.
As do the measurements from many sources.
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Just received mine, mainly for my T50RPs. Yup, that’s what they needed. Holy effing bass.
And right now, I don’t have my main DAC (recording interface) so I’m just “double-amping” my old Denon AVR headphone out. Yes, double-amping sucks. And it’s an AVR, so… well, it sucks. Still, the Atom makes it sound way better. Really adds depth and width (soundstage) to the sound. I’ll use “transparency” the wrong way here, but, I was about to say “transparency” instead of “depth”, because every sound… has its own space now. So… instrument separation?
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So overall you think it’s a welcome improvement?
Obviously 
I’m just messing around with the AVR, I won’t keep it here.
My recording interface has a RCA “line out”, perfect for the Atom. Will be my “headphone out” now.
Also, that’s my first amp, so… If I could find my Playstation 3 cable, I could test the RCA line out there, too. Curious about the DAC inside.
I can also plug the atom into my Denon cassette tape player (oh, the humanity!).
Let’s see…CDs are 16 bit, the Atom is completely transparent nearly to 24 bit.
What is the bitrate of cassette tapes? 
Pretty sure some people prefer their Nakamichi Dragon cassette tape player to CD players, and uh, again, that’s the analog vs digital debate… but I definitely prefer CDs to my old Denon cassette tape player I got for like 50$ on eBay. (An old one… with a 1/4 headphone out on the front… but I learned the hard way the 1/4 output had no volume control. Yeah, what the hell!)
All I can do right now is double-amping, and double-amping does weird shit. 
-Push the first amp too much and you’re just amping distortion (nooo!)
-Not enough and you’re just… amping the noise floor.
-My AVR amp is weird, medium volume = best bass. Low or high volume = too much treble.
-Amping my old smartphone, at 100% volume, gives me some kind of multiband compression as if the output could just not do it but crams everything through the 3.5mm output anyway (that was unexpected!).
And when you get it right you wonder if everything sounds clearer, more spacious, or if it just sounds like that because you’re basically amping silence, lol. And that, my friends, is why you should always just amp a line out.
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I’m surprised you don’t have an rca cable around. I think it’s pretty rare to not have one somewhere regardless if you are into tech or not
Huh, no, I have RCA cables. Just no line outs. My AVR doesn’t have one (!), and the main thing I bought the Atom for isn’t here right now.
I might test the onboard no-name motherboard 3.5mm output too, I don’t even know how it sounds, lol.
Ahh my bad ok gotcha
No worries Lol I’m a nerd since I don’t know when so I got like 3 boxes of wiring… of dubious quality.
“This RCA? No, not this. Oh, maybe with this adapter? No, not this one. Oh, this is a RCA to 3.5mm – oh, no, this is female RCA to 3.5mm. This RCA? Oh, no this is RCA to RF for a Nintendo.”