An X-ray emission spectrometer that can detect the sulfur Kα emission lines with large throughput and a high energy resolution is presented. The instrument is based on a large d-spacing perfect Bragg analyzer that diffracts the sulfur Kα emission at close to backscattering angles. This facilitates the application of efficient concepts routinely employed in hard X-ray spectrometers towards the tender X-ray regime. The instrument described in this work is based on an energy-dispersive von Hamos geometry that is well suited for photon-in photon-out spectroscopy at X-ray free-electron laser and synchrotron sources. Comparison of its performance with previously used instrumentation is presented through measurements using sulfur-containing species performed at the LCLS. It is shown that the overall signal intensity is increased by a factor of ∼15. Implementation of this approach in the design of a tender X-ray spectroscopy endstation for LCLS-II is also discussed.