$149 JDS LABS ATOM PHONO PHONOSTAGE LAUNCHED

The JDS Labs Atom Phono is an affordable, Low Noise Phono Preamp and Tone Control.

Billed as an ideal place to start for those new to vinyl who are often puzzled by the need for a phono preamp.

JDS LABS ATOM PHONO

The JDS Labs Atom Phono a strong RIAA phono preamp and clean tone control in one. At high gain, Atom Phono delivers audio up to 4x louder than most integrated phono preamps. Its flexible bypass toggles let you use it as an EQ, a phono preamp, both, or bypass it entirely. With features like a subsonic filter, selectable 30 or 40 dB gain, and impressively low THD and noise, Atom Phono offers what you need from an RIAA preamp at a budget price, says JDS Labs.

TONE CONTROLS

Atom Phono replaces Subjective3 for those seeking dedicated bass and treble adjustment for their Atom 2 stack. The tone control is a low-noise adaptation of a Baxandall circuit, customized for deeper bass and sparkly treble.

HARDWARE

Atom Phono’s RIAA preamp leverages paralleled passives to minimize tolerance errors. Output from its subsonic filter passes to a gain stage to optionally double the turntable signal from 30 dB to 40 dB.

A network of quad relays allow you to enable or bypass the phono and EQ stages: Use one or the other, or both, or neither.

If you want to know more about the JDS Atom range, read our review here of the Atom Amp 2 and DAC

JDS LABS ATOM PHONO SPECS

RIAA Performance 

SINAD @ 1 kHz, 15mV      90 dB

Siganl-to-Noise Ratio         89 dB

Noise (low gain, A-Weighted)       5 uV

Crosstalk @ 10kHz  -82 dB

SMPTE Ratio          -87 dB

Dynamic Range       96 dB

EQ Performance    

SINAD @ 1kHz, 2VRMS, Centered Knobs        110 dB

Noise (centered knobs)      3.8 uV

Frequency Response (Centered knobs)  20-20kHz +/- 0.13 dB

Bass – Adjustment Range  +14 to -23 dB

Bass – Corner Frequency  ~150 Hz

Treble – Adjustment Range          +13 to – 22 dB

Treble – Corner Frequency ~ 2 kHz

JDS LABS ATOM PHONO PRICE

$149

HiFi PiG Says: A very affordable phonostage for those getting into vinyl.