We’ve long maintained that most headphones on the market need below 1W of power for normal listening. This is why all of our recent amplifiers have been designed around this figure–until now. Element III Boosted is for those of you with an appetite for ill-advised volumes from the world’s most power-hungry headphones. No, we still […]
Author: John Seaber
On EL3 Manufacturing
Element III manufacturing has been challenging, to say the least. We were ecstatic to release Element III and pleased to see a strong reception from customers all over the world. Thank you! Then a few things went frustratingly wrong. Like knobs which arrived wobbly or broken, or DACs which threw error codes upon arrival (yes, […]
Introducing EL DAC II+ Balanced
EL DAC II+ Balanced pairs with EL Amp II+ Balanced, running on our latest XMOS based UAC2 engine with ASIO support for both PCM and DSD. Its balanced outputs are in addition to single-ended RCA outputs, giving you the flexibility to connect to any amplifier. Firmware EL DAC II+ Balanced arrives loaded with our latest […]
Element III Firmware Updates & Menu Options
Thank you to all first adopters of Element III! We’re glad so many of you are enjoying Element III as much as we are. While EL3 is temporarily sold out, we’ve been listening to all feedback to improve firmware features and overall quality (more coming in a separate post). Most notably, Firmware v2.2.0 or newer […]
Introducing EL Amp II+ Balanced
JDS Labs EL Amp II+ Balanced We’ve historically avoided building balanced amplifiers because well designed, single-ended amplifiers are all most need in a home audio setup. Yet, a growing number of customers have asked for balanced inputs. Maybe you have an audio interface or source with XLR or TRS outputs, and have passed on EL […]
JDS Labs Element III – Official Release & Benchmarks
JDS Labs Element III We’re incredibly pleased to present Element III. This is no ordinary refresh. Rather, we’ve reimagined our flagship amp+DAC to create a listening experience you will actually notice and appreciate. Element III runs on our second generation XMOS hardware and firmware, blissfully integrated with a custom encoder. You’ll hear perfect channel balance […]
Introducing EL DAC II+: Element III or EL Stack?
JDS Labs EL DAC II+ EL DAC II+ transitions EL DAC II from an AKM to an ESS chipset, building upon the same core feature set: relay muting, an XMOS based UAC2 engine, TOSLINK input, and transformer isolated coaxial S/PDIF input. The upgraded ESS chipset achieves higher performance and adds DSD128 support, and for those […]
New Cable Roundup for Headsets, UAC1, and Type C
Premium Headset Cables for PS5 Way too many customers lost their minds trying to connect headsets through a maze of 3 adapters. One PS5 owner successfully connected his headset to his amp+DAC earlier this summer only to complain, “too many adapters!” I get it. We spent weeks experimenting with PS4s and PS5s in the office, […]
JDS Labs Atom Amp is now Atom Amp+
JDS Labs Atom Amp+ Our job is to help you enjoy exceptional headphones. What we explained when announcing Atom Amp still holds true: We do not release new hardware for the sake of release schedules or corporate goals. In fact, this announcement was not on our roadmap and JDS Labs is doing well without the need […]
JDS Labs EL Amp II is now EL Amp II+
JDS Labs EL Amp II+ We’ll keep this short and promise this is the last major update for now. EL Amp II is now EL Amp II+, following the same chipset upgrades applied to Atom Amp+. Performance EL Amp II+ increases SINAD from 114dB to 119dB at low gain, and from 105dB to 110dB at […]