This is a review and detailed measurements of JDS Labs EL DAC. It retails for $249 and is kind loan from a reddit member.The EL DAC uses the same design language/enclosure as their attractive Element DAC and Amp which I reviewed earlier. This being a DAC alone, the big knob is of course eliminated:The momentary switch enables selection of different inputs. I am afraid I could not quite get a hang of how much to push it to advance to the next setting. The color of ring around the switch indicates which input is selected which required more mental effort than this lazy brain wanted to dedicate. Then again if you just use it for USB or whatever, it is not a big deal.The finish seems to pick some amount of smudges. Not too bad but does require more delicate care to keep it looking good long term. I see that this unit just like the ELELMENT that I reviewed comes with an engraving. I am assuming JDS is providing this service.The unit has the usual triple inputs of S/PDIF, Toslink and USB. Only one output if provided of course (unbalanced).Power is provided by an external transformer. As such it only runs at 120 volts. It produces 15 volt AC nominal output. Oddly the back of the EL DAC says 16 volt AC. No matter as the AC voltage will fluctuate anyway.Anyway, let's see how she measures.I started to measure the USB input and unfortunately quickly ran into the 24 bit to 16 bit truncation in ASIO4ALL wrapper I use with my Audio Precision analyzer. Fortunately JDS provides an ASIO driver which I used to avoid this issue. Here is the dashboard using that:This is pretty good performance and much better than the spec (0.0011% THD+N). Some jitter is visible however around our 1 kHz tone. And we have a bit of mains hum at 60 Hz (this is optimized by playing with grounding).I ran S/PDIF test to see how it does:This is without the USB cable connected. With it, performance drops so clearly some USB noise is bleeding into the unit.Stacking this relative to DACs measured recently we get:So firmly in "tier 2" performance and comparable to Topping D50 which retails similarly although Topping achieves that performance with its USB.Let's look at intermodulation distortion versus level:Noise floor is higher than some ESS (chip) based DACs like Topping D50. As expected though, there is no ESS DAC chip hump so overall this is preferable performance.Bit of saturation is visible in the output buffer at levels exceeding-4 dB or so.Jitter spectrum is more messy than I like:Which goes with dashboard measurement of USB not being as good as S/PDIF. Fortunately none of this is audible so more of a biting of the lip than real concern.Linearity is nailed:Dynamic range is worse than spec (117 dB) because I don't apply a-weighting:THD+N versus frequency using expanded bandwidth of 90 kHz instead of 22.5 Khz used in Dashboard shows above average noise floor:Frequency response is uneventful:And for those of you who keep asking, here is the response to white noise and square wave:Nerd out on it all you like.That's it I think.JDS Labs is a no-nonsense company that sets targets and achieves them. The EL DAC brings unique packaging to this crowded market with opportunity for personalization. Performance is competent. No design errors are visible. Only lack of perfection (e.g. in Jitter and noisier USB vs. S/PDIF). I am going to put the EL DAC on my recommended list.If you prefer to buy western products, the EL DAC is another good choice for you.-----As always, any questions, concerns, comments, corrections, etc. are welcome.If you like this review,using Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview ), or upgrading your membership here though Paypal ( https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054 ). It will enable me to pay for gear that is not offered for loan.