1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:08,599
there's not a lot of companies out there that everything they make and I look at

2
00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:11,320
I go God damn that is genuinely like

3
00:00:08,599 --> 00:00:14,799
excellent and JDS Labs who make the product we're about to look at here

4
00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:22,039
this the element 4 they're brand new

5
00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:24,359
headphone DAC amp combo unit thing if

6
00:00:22,039 --> 00:00:30,080
you're not familiar this thing make your headphone sound good and power your

7
00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:31,679
headphone good this is no exception I I

8
00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:34,800
hope I mean I haven't experienced it yet but look at it here I mean you can see

9
00:00:33,399 --> 00:00:39,440
it on the box where does it say on the box look look you see this boom sound as

10
00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:44,680
science their whole stick is making audio equipment that is genuinely

11
00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:49,239
awesome not only just to look at I mean damn that looks good but to use and

12
00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:53,359
apparently their customer service is phenomenal although I've only ever talked to them like one time now if

13
00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:58,760
you're not familiar or you haven't guessed what this is meant to do it's a

14
00:00:56,079 --> 00:01:05,080
headphone amp and Dack so you take this bad girl with this included USBC cable

15
00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:06,520
Wong you plug it into your computer it's

16
00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:13,640
going to show up as an audio output device and then you plug in a pair of headphones and you listen to it it has

17
00:01:10,479 --> 00:01:15,720
apparently 3.2 watts of output power now

18
00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:21,119
that might not sound like a lot of Watts uh in the context of normal stuff like

19
00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:25,720
uh I don't know like a CPU you know that might be hundreds of Watts but three

20
00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:28,880
watts of audio like right next to your

21
00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:30,560
head like this that is a lot of Watts

22
00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:34,079
especially if they're like in your headphones in your ears 3 Watts there

23
00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:39,200
you're going to blow your freaking eardrums out the wazu let's look at the

24
00:01:36,759 --> 00:01:43,759
back we've got the USBC that is just a data connection it's not USB PD I think

25
00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:47,399
no there's no way uh with audio equipment the power supply situation is

26
00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:50,920
very important and we'll get to that in a second we've got RCA outs because you

27
00:01:49,399 --> 00:01:54,439
can use this not only for your headphones but if you had uh a set of

28
00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:57,439
speakers with an amplifier you can switch between the headphone output

29
00:01:55,880 --> 00:02:00,479
which is out there on the front we've got an optical toss link input if you

30
00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:05,759
have a fan player maybe or like a I don't know a

31
00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:08,520
fancy record player might have toss link maybe they don't I don't know Blu-ray

32
00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:13,360
player that that's something that could have toss link we've got a mode button

33
00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:18,160
this switches between the USB and toss link input and then a power button and

34
00:02:15,879 --> 00:02:23,400
our DC input which is actually never mind it is not DC now curiously this

35
00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:28,879
isn't really like a traditional AC to DC power supply It's actually an AC toac

36
00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:34,519
Transformer so it takes 120 volt AC because we're in North America and

37
00:02:30,319 --> 00:02:36,720
outputs 17v AC which is maybe a bit

38
00:02:34,519 --> 00:02:42,360
strange if you're used to like you know normal Electronics usually it's a DC

39
00:02:38,879 --> 00:02:44,000
input uh but with audio equipment

40
00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:47,840
specifically you don't really want to rely on a third party power supply

41
00:02:45,879 --> 00:02:51,440
manufacturer who might have like varying quality control stuff so instead of

42
00:02:49,640 --> 00:02:55,400
doing that they take an AC input and then convert that to the DC power for

43
00:02:53,280 --> 00:03:00,000
all the amplification and the digital to analog conversion inside the unit that

44
00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:04,080
way they can build the electronics exactly how they want and do all the QC

45
00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:08,120
in-house a little bit easier it's also the same reason why your receiver just

46
00:03:06,319 --> 00:03:11,599
takes 120 volt instead of having a big power supply outside they do that stuff

47
00:03:09,920 --> 00:03:15,640
inside where they have control apparently some people were not stoked

48
00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:20,319
that it has USBC and doesn't do USBC power but I can understand you need to

49
00:03:18,159 --> 00:03:25,560
have really clean power to have the level of like signal to noise ratio that

50
00:03:22,640 --> 00:03:29,000
these things have um and I imagine doing that over USB is exceedingly more

51
00:03:27,879 --> 00:03:33,360
difficult than when you have a very controlled sour like this I remember when they released the first element

52
00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:39,239
everyone was like tripping over this knob The Twist motion ooh it's nice it's

53
00:03:36,840 --> 00:03:43,080
not the nicest knob I've ever knobbed in my life you know they like really fancy

54
00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:48,720
receivers you like turn them and it's like soft like it's not not soft but I

55
00:03:46,879 --> 00:03:52,840
feel like there's an inconsistent resistance a little bit

56
00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:57,519
it's a good knob I mean in the nobless world we live in the bar is very low and

57
00:03:54,920 --> 00:04:02,640
I will I would happily accept this knob I would knob this knob

58
00:04:00,159 --> 00:04:06,879
regularly I think the kind of weird feel that I'm getting from it actually might

59
00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:11,920
make sense because it allows you to be like a little bit more precise like it

60
00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:15,560
stops Now by default when you click the knob it switches between the

61
00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:19,120
quarter-inch headphone output on the front using the headphone amp and the

62
00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:22,919
RCA outputs here so if you have a set of speakers with a separate amp you just go

63
00:04:21,280 --> 00:04:28,400
boom now I'm speakers boom now I'm headphone really nice feature there's

64
00:04:24,759 --> 00:04:31,960
also an OLED screen you see that

65
00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:33,840
look it's a our sponsor Greenman gaming

66
00:04:31,960 --> 00:04:38,720
Monster Hunter Wilds is coming on February 28th but you can reserve your

67
00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:43,360
copy today at Greenman gaming and get 16% off you can track and defeat

68
00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:47,600
powerful creatures craft new weapons and armor and explore highly detailed

69
00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:51,560
everchanging environments and Greenman gaming is an authorized and trusted

70
00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:55,479
seller of PC game keys where you can get great discounts on some of the hottest

71
00:04:53,240 --> 00:05:01,039
titles while still directly supporting their developers and Publishers so don't

72
00:04:58,039 --> 00:05:02,720
wait get 16% off Monster Hunter Wilds by

73
00:05:01,039 --> 00:05:11,240
clicking our Link in the video description I think this is a 3ish foot

74
00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:12,400
USB a Toc cable now I feel like for most

75
00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:17,759
people who are going to have this at their desk this is fine but if you rock

76
00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:19,240
a laptop especially a Macbook like I was

77
00:05:17,759 --> 00:05:25,639
planning to plug into this that's a problem do I have a

78
00:05:22,400 --> 00:05:29,039
dongle a no way it's almost like I use a

79
00:05:25,639 --> 00:05:30,240
Macbook I'm used to this look at that

80
00:05:29,039 --> 00:05:34,840
baby now for the price of this device which

81
00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:39,680
we'll get into in a little bit JDS y'all best be including one of these dongles

82
00:05:36,319 --> 00:05:43,800
in the Box all right all right for test

83
00:05:39,680 --> 00:05:48,000
listening we've got the Sennheiser SL

84
00:05:43,800 --> 00:05:51,440
drop hd8 XX headphones these are like a

85
00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:53,440
slightly costed down version of the

86
00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:56,800
hd800s which is the headphones I have at home so this is perfect I guess while

87
00:05:55,240 --> 00:06:02,440
we're here we can talk a little bit about the nerdy stuff for the Nerds this

88
00:05:59,840 --> 00:06:08,000
has the screen has Gorilla Glass that's random but I like it the big new thing

89
00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:11,400
with this is the parametric EQ it has a

90
00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:13,720
10 band EQ which is super cool but you

91
00:06:11,400 --> 00:06:17,599
don't have to run software on it what it is is a tool that runs in your web

92
00:06:15,319 --> 00:06:23,400
browser like a website and then when you connect your amp to the website it

93
00:06:20,759 --> 00:06:28,039
flashes the settings whatever you set to the device over basically a USB serial

94
00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:32,440
connection so once you've made that profile or changes or whatever you want

95
00:06:29,639 --> 00:06:35,639
want uh you can take this amp somewhere else plug it in and it'll still have all

96
00:06:33,960 --> 00:06:40,560
the settings saved and you don't have to run any software on your computer which

97
00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:41,960
is so nice it also has automatic gain

98
00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:47,160
control like I mentioned earlier when it automatically switches you can hear the

99
00:06:44,280 --> 00:06:52,599
relay supposedly perfect Channel balance all the way down to minus 127.5 dbfs

100
00:06:50,759 --> 00:06:56,080
it's got preamp outputs which means you can control the volume of your speakers

101
00:06:54,599 --> 00:06:59,879
when you're in speaker mode if I switch it there see we're in RC output I can

102
00:06:58,319 --> 00:07:03,639
change the volume of my speakers on here it's

103
00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:11,120
got the super nice knob which is customizable and it supports up to 32bit

104
00:07:05,960 --> 00:07:13,599
384 khz PCM with their fancy UAC 2 setup

105
00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:19,280
oh and the 10 band EQ specifically is supported from 44.1 to 192 khz they can

106
00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:23,319
do two bands at higher rates if you're a super nerd that cares a lot about like

107
00:07:21,560 --> 00:07:29,120
signal to noise ratio and stuff like that this is well beyond the audible

108
00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:30,280
range of a person but if you do care you

109
00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:38,199
can check out out the audio science review which they already did of this thing and it rided very very well let's

110
00:07:34,879 --> 00:07:41,680
um listen to some music I

111
00:07:38,199 --> 00:07:41,680
guess these

112
00:07:42,120 --> 00:07:49,919
um wow I don't know if I've ever listened to these headphones like this

113
00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:52,720
before it's reallying

114
00:07:49,919 --> 00:07:57,720
loud wow I just can't believe that this has so

115
00:07:54,400 --> 00:08:01,599
much like range like you can play all

116
00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:04,199
the way up to like obscenely loud on

117
00:08:01,599 --> 00:08:09,879
these headphones and it doesn't sound it it doesn't sound distorted or

118
00:08:07,159 --> 00:08:14,120
crushed or anything it sounds it's too good it might actually just be too good

119
00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:18,400
it actually literally says in the instructions the element 4 can amplify

120
00:08:15,879 --> 00:08:22,560
headphones to Dangerously loud audio listen safely to conserve your hearing

121
00:08:20,199 --> 00:08:26,240
hearing l.org that's so funny the cool thing about

122
00:08:24,879 --> 00:08:30,520
having the screen on here is a I mean you can see your uput game but it also shows you the sampling rate that you're

123
00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:37,200
using right now so right now we're on 44.1 khz in theory we can go higher than

124
00:08:34,959 --> 00:08:43,240
that I don't know how to change that on macOS though if I hold the whoa look at

125
00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:49,399
that oh my God there's all these options we've got UI settings DSP config USB

126
00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:51,800
audio class mute inactive USB s SPD mode

127
00:08:49,399 --> 00:08:59,279
uh DAC configuration satisfactory reset DAC configuration what's that Max sample

128
00:08:55,800 --> 00:09:03,560
rate yeah okay oh see so by default it

129
00:08:59,279 --> 00:09:05,680
it it's 192 khz USB audio class ah this

130
00:09:03,560 --> 00:09:10,560
is a cool one so if you have something like a Nintendo switch which uses UAC 1

131
00:09:09,040 --> 00:09:14,640
if you have a device that only supports UAC 2 then it wouldn't work with your

132
00:09:13,040 --> 00:09:18,120
Nintendo switch however JD has thought about this and they have two different

133
00:09:16,079 --> 00:09:23,160
modes so if you have a device that only supports UAC 1 you can go into the

134
00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:25,800
settings here you can change it to UAC 1

135
00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:31,760
damn son this thing's cool connect to device oh here we go JDS Labs connect

136
00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:37,760
look at that that that's so cool okay so I have the old version of this thing the

137
00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:39,800
element 3 boosted and you can't change

138
00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:43,800
the settings anyway other than using the knob and it's a really small screen so

139
00:09:41,760 --> 00:09:47,959
while you can do it it is a little bit tricky so being able to change all of

140
00:09:46,320 --> 00:09:53,079
those settings or at least it seems like a fair number of them in here is really

141
00:09:50,560 --> 00:09:58,640
nice and you can share your profile that's so smart you can even save your

142
00:09:56,320 --> 00:10:01,680
profile to your account oh my God these guys they think it's things and so if I

143
00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:04,480
get the link and then you can send that to your friend if you like made a cool

144
00:10:03,279 --> 00:10:09,760
profile for your headphones and your friend has the same headphones you can send it to him and try it out or if you

145
00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:13,880
had speakers same deal it's a little tricky on title to actually find clips

146
00:10:11,560 --> 00:10:18,560
that are 192 khz so almost everything I found so far is 24bit 44.1 khz but I

147
00:10:16,959 --> 00:10:23,680
want to try something that's 192 even though I'm not going to be able to tell the

148
00:10:20,519 --> 00:10:26,959
difference uh apparently Africa by Toto

149
00:10:23,680 --> 00:10:29,800
is yeah it is it totally is look it

150
00:10:26,959 --> 00:10:36,360
switched like actually completely maxed out it it's it's loud but it's still not

151
00:10:34,040 --> 00:10:40,800
painfully loud if that gives you an idea of how hard these headphones are to

152
00:10:38,079 --> 00:10:45,399
drive this is the first headphone amp that I've used that has actually been

153
00:10:42,480 --> 00:10:48,880
like okay this is like really enough to get these to the point that I would is

154
00:10:47,200 --> 00:10:53,120
uncomfortable to listen at like it's uncomfortable it's not painful but it's

155
00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:58,760
not a listening level I would like B Shamir to come come come do a listen and

156
00:10:56,959 --> 00:11:01,880
they actually sound not bad outside of the headphones I can't hear a thing

157
00:11:00,279 --> 00:11:06,240
you're saying I said they sound not bad outside

158
00:11:04,519 --> 00:11:10,360
of the headphones yeah no they sound really good I only use airpods this is

159
00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:14,639
this is like much better try try and like turn it up sure like it's actually

160
00:11:12,560 --> 00:11:18,920
kind of crazy how loud they get and without being distorted that is a good

161
00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:22,680
KN by the way wow that's crazy it's really just as good but loud yeah

162
00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:27,079
there's a really cool piece of software called sonar Works sound ID they

163
00:11:24,680 --> 00:11:31,880
basically do pre-made calibration profiles for headphones to try to get

164
00:11:28,760 --> 00:11:35,240
them to be flatter which not always the

165
00:11:31,880 --> 00:11:36,480
best for everyone but for a Creator or

166
00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:40,639
like somebody who's doing audio mastering if you can make your

167
00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:44,399
headphones flatter that's good the nice thing about it is for these headphones

168
00:11:42,360 --> 00:11:48,480
specifically or or the hd800s which is what these are based off of they're a

169
00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:53,880
little spicy in the highend and there's a little bit of um base lacking one

170
00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:58,720
might say and you can tweak it a little bit with sound ID but I don't want to

171
00:11:56,600 --> 00:12:04,040
have to run the software so if I could get there profile in JDS Labs core which

172
00:12:01,680 --> 00:12:08,079
is the online EQ thing that would be pretty sick I was expecting that you

173
00:12:06,120 --> 00:12:14,600
would have to like edit the profile and then flash it like wait a sec and then

174
00:12:10,920 --> 00:12:17,839
it would be active I can live edit

175
00:12:14,600 --> 00:12:21,279
this yo that's so cool there's a second

176
00:12:17,839 --> 00:12:24,600
of it like cutting out but it's almost

177
00:12:21,279 --> 00:12:26,240
instantaneous a dude dude H God damn it

178
00:12:24,600 --> 00:12:30,560
I'm going to have to buy these now I'm going to have to buy this now here let's

179
00:12:28,440 --> 00:12:33,880
look at this frequency response they even have a Q setting which is like the

180
00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:39,160
width of the frequency range you're adjusting in that band so let's say that

181
00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:47,040
the um hd800s according to this graph has a bit of a bump at 1,000 htz you can

182
00:12:43,399 --> 00:12:48,680
more specifically Target 1,000 is htz if

183
00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:52,040
you're really trying to like tune a pair of headphones properly you would use

184
00:12:50,240 --> 00:12:55,120
like a hat with little microphones inside to actually measure what the

185
00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:59,839
frequency response would be like that would be a far more proper way to do

186
00:12:56,600 --> 00:13:02,800
this than me janky looking at this graph

187
00:12:59,839 --> 00:13:08,240
but dude this is so cool I already feel like I'm I'm vibing with a little more

188
00:13:06,079 --> 00:13:12,959
bass this is definitely not the way to do this um but I toned down you know

189
00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:17,079
looking at a graph of like somebody else's headphone frequency response I

190
00:13:15,639 --> 00:13:24,160
don't even know if it's normalized like all this stuff it's not the proper way to do this um but I was just kind of

191
00:13:21,079 --> 00:13:26,800
ballparking it it toned down the top end

192
00:13:24,160 --> 00:13:30,839
brought the the subbase up a little bit I I think it does sound better and

193
00:13:29,120 --> 00:13:34,560
and the fact that it just works instantly like it's a there's a touch of

194
00:13:32,519 --> 00:13:38,920
a cutout but it's fast enough that you can hear the difference immediately and

195
00:13:36,760 --> 00:13:44,360
kind of give yourself a reference and and really allow you to tune your

196
00:13:41,440 --> 00:13:48,079
playback to what you would prefer I said earlier that they like have stuff that's

197
00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:52,480
reasonably priced and they do JDS Labs makes a lot of really awesome products

198
00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:58,320
and they do make ones that are a little bit more on the um affordable range of

199
00:13:56,240 --> 00:14:03,160
things their most popular ones the atom daging amp you can get for 150 for the

200
00:14:00,560 --> 00:14:08,759
DAC and 130 for the amp not nearly as powerful but still really good wow the

201
00:14:05,639 --> 00:14:11,000
El amp is on sale too but the element 4

202
00:14:08,759 --> 00:14:13,839
which comes with both integrated in it's exactly what you're looking at here this

203
00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:18,360
is 550 us compared to some of the other

204
00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:24,000
things that have this much output power it's not really egregious considering

205
00:14:21,199 --> 00:14:28,360
that and the feature set um it is genuinely really awesome seems like

206
00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:32,560
sounds great doesn't sound distorted audio is such a subjective thing but

207
00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:36,399
this is designing a device that is supposed to take the subjectiveness out

208
00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:41,759
of it it's supposed to just be objectively excellent and honestly I use

209
00:14:39,199 --> 00:14:47,199
their atom Dack for my main speakers because I like having discrete output

210
00:14:43,839 --> 00:14:48,600
devices um and it's great too but having

211
00:14:47,199 --> 00:14:51,560
one unit with all the stuff packed in there it's pretty damn impressive it's

212
00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:57,199
not cheap but if you have expensive headphones and you care about your audio sounding like it's supposed to sound

213
00:14:54,759 --> 00:15:01,240
like and you like being able to EQ like I just showed you without running

214
00:14:58,360 --> 00:15:07,199
software this might be a very good option for you assuming you can stomach

215
00:15:03,839 --> 00:15:09,120
the cost it's a premium product and it's

216
00:15:07,199 --> 00:15:15,079
not trying to hide that but my God is it ever good you know what else is

217
00:15:10,920 --> 00:15:18,120
good me at asking you to hit subscribe

218
00:15:15,079 --> 00:15:20,680
and hit the like button and listening to

219
00:15:18,120 --> 00:15:25,120
music I'm just going to I'm just going to do this a little bit more we should

220
00:15:23,399 --> 00:15:28,160
just have the outro of this video just be like 30 seconds longer than it

221
00:15:26,759 --> 00:15:30,959
actually is and just be listening to Tunes