JDS Labs Element IV: power output and what it will drive

The JDS Labs Element IV is a desktop DAC/amp at $549. It delivers 3.2 W into 32Ω and 347 mW into 300Ω, which ranks it 18 of 280 for raw power among the sources in this database.

Measured at 100 dB SPL it has comfortable headroom on 565 of the 567 dynamic and planar headphones catalogued here and enough but not generous on 2. Volume knob, DAC and amp in one machined block. Like the Atom 2, rated continuous rather than peak.

The manufacturer publishes 3.2 W into 32Ω, 692 mW into 150Ω, 174 mW into 600Ω. The rest of the table is worked out from those.

Derived rows hold output voltage steady, as an amplifier does (method).

Source: blog.jdslabs.com, jdslabs.com.

Easiest to hardest to drive, with headroom at a 100 dB SPL peak.

At 2 µV of output noise, here is where that noise lands in the five most revealing in-ears in the database.

This one hisses. With the most sensitive in-ears in the database its own noise lands around 27 dB SPL, which you will hear between tracks and in quiet passages.

At 1Ω output impedance, the one-eighth rule says this source suits headphones of 8.0Ω and above. 15 of the 567 models here fall below that. Most of them are multi-driver in-ears, and the mismatch tilts the frequency response audibly rather than subtly.

Check any pair.

Of the 280 sources here, 9 do everything the JDS Labs Element IV does as a headphone output: reach 100 dB on every headphone it reaches, stay inside the one-eighth rule wherever it does and stay under the audible-hiss threshold wherever it does. The cheapest of them is the Schiit Magni Unity at $119, against this one’s $549 — $430 less, and a desktop amplifier rather than a desktop DAC/amp.

This counts the headphone output only; inputs, converters, the volume control and the build are outside it.

Compared with its closest rivals: vs JDS Labs Element III MK2 · vs SMSL DO400 · vs Topping DX5.

Compare any two or match your own headphones. Every JDS Labs source here.