AudioQuest JitterBug Review

  • Thread starter Thread starter mauidan
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Just received the one I ordered ages ago today.
I popped it in and started listening. I was wondering if anyone has spent some time with one yet, 'curious on thoughts.
 
On other forums it has been touted as a "cheaper" Regen, both less expensive and not quite as good.
 
It seems to be more like the filter built into the TotalDac cable. Seems to be complementary to the Regen too, as Regen is not a filter.
 
wisnon said:
It seems to be more like the filter built into the TotalDac cable.
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That could indeed be the case. On the other hand, going by the marketing material of TotalDAC compared to the pictures of the jitterbug PCB, the TotalDAC is more complex.

Going by the feedback of a computeraudiophile member who actually opened his TotalDAC cable, it seems it is simpler than claimed (personally, I haven't verified so I don't really know).
 
rbbert said:
On other forums it has been touted as a "cheaper" Regen, both less expensive and not quite as good.
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You have to understand that currently, anything claiming to be like the Regen is very likely to be not like the Regen at all: none of the other devices actually have the feature of a frequency-optimised PDN to reduce the noise profile of the USB receiver chip.

It is highly probable that future devices will try to implement that very same feature, but tread carefully for current devices.

There's nothing like the Regen anywhere at this very moment.
 
Yash, be careful. When I tried to have people understand this, the poster who will not be named tried to belittle the comment. This despite the fact that he clearly did not grasp how async works., nor why Regen is a mini audio breakthru in an area NOBODY else was looking at. JS was motivated to address the (USB SI impact on noise propogation in the Dac) because of his high speed communications signalling background where optimized PDNs are a must and this is his forte. In bringing this to USB audio, he is finding rapid and tangible success.

To address a problem, you have to KNOW that there is a problem, or just be a beneficiary of blind luck.
 
This thing works. I hear a more analog like sound, meaning less digital and noise floor is quieter. I do not like two of them as the sound becomes harder and more congested. I tried the earlier version of the Regen and did not like it at all. I have the new one coming in September. It's attached to my computer and my Aesthetix Pandora Reference Dac with the best Wireworld cable.:exciting:
 
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Jeffy said:
This thing works. I hear a more analog like sound, meaning less digital and noise floor is quieter. I do not like two of them as the sound becomes harder and more congested. I tried the earlier version of the Regen and did not like it at all. I have the new one coming in September. It's attached to my computer and my Aesthetix Pandora Reference Dac with the best Wireworld cable.:exciting:
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Regen Green? Worked well for me with a Corning Optical USB cable.
 
I picked up a jitterbug to try in my office shop setup but before I took it to work I thought for fun I would try it in my Auralic Aries. I've heard that putting one in an unused port can help so that's what I did. In regards to my setup at home I have a pretty bad room at the moment and use room correction via DSPeaker 2.0 and therefore use the toslink out of the Aries into the DSPeaker and toslink out to my dac.

So I tried putting the jitterbug in both usb ports of my Aries and heard an improvement each time. I know it sounds weird because I don't use a usb cable and therefore don't use any of the usb ports. The port intended for the usb cable had the most detail but could be a little on the thin side. The other port that's used for a flash drive sounded slightly less detailed but a little more full bodied. I ordered a couple more jitterbugs to try and see what happens with two at the same time as well as for my office shop. Crazy...
 
wisnon said:
Yash, be careful. When I tried to have people understand this, the poster who will not be named tried to belittle the comment. This despite the fact that he clearly did not grasp how async works., nor why Regen is a mini audio breakthru in an area NOBODY else was looking at. JS was motivated to address the (USB SI impact on noise propogation in the Dac) because of his high speed communications signalling background where optimized PDNs are a must and this is his forte. In bringing this to USB audio, he is finding rapid and tangible success.

To address a problem, you have to KNOW that there is a problem, or just be a beneficiary of blind luck.
Click to expand...

When you behave this way you do a wonderful job revealing who and what you are to our community. Thank you for doing so.

My comments to your above post:

First Bold Above- I understand asynch USB; I did not understand the Regens usb synchronization because this, to me, was ambiguous in the literature. That is a big difference. I simply asked questions about whether the Regen maintained an asych architecture or reverted to synch because it was not clear to me in their marketing stuff. I made it clear I was asking a question and even apologized in advance if my conjecture turned out to be wrong. My post from the Regen Wow thread:

As far as the John's design parameters go, where I question the regen's overall sound improvement limitations versus other more sophisticated approaches relates mainly to the clock. John has decided the best way to limit packet noise is to re-clock the entire stream at the signal interface using the regen's own independent clock. This step appears to be counter to the entire premise of asynchronous usb where the PC's (or server's) clock is rendered irrelevant and a much higher precision clock in the dac runs the show. Does the regen not work asynchronously with the dacs's clock which in most cases is vastly superior to whatever John has put in this $147 device? This appears to be the case and, if so, it would create an extreme limitation to the ultimate potential of the unit.

I have not seen this point addressed. If it has been I apologize; as has been made clear I am a slow learner. But if the unit is not using a full asynchronous connection, I would equate this design to cutting off your arm because your thumb hurts. Why sacrifice asynchronous jitter control and all its glory to manage packet noise???? Aren't there much better ways? If this is true, the unit would tend to only help dacs with average clocks being fed by sources on the noisy end of the range, but that's about it.
Click to expand...

Second Bold Above - When you make these kind of unfounded claims you undermine your credibility. Until you take a look more closely at the reference products in the market and speak to their designers about usb PDN optimization, you sound like a DIY guy who's world consists of forums populated by crowds of other diy guys; their worlds are limited to this arena. High speed data transfer is commodity technology and has been for years. There is no doubt that much of the gear on the market will be helped by the Regen. I have made it clear I am a big believer. But claiming Uptone "is the only" one who understand these concepts is mystifying.
 
Paul,
Chillax. I was just poking you as you were doing to me then (3 whole days ago...how did you miss that!). No harm, no foul. I assume that got stale and we have undergone mean reversion.

I said that no one else was looking at, so how do you turn that into no one else understands?
In terms of credibility, who cares? I am not selling anything and like you I just share what I know and what I am allowed to. Not everything I am told can be repeated online, but all that informs my own world view. I take confidences quite seriously. If you told me stuff but aske me to keep it offline, I would!

Now, back to regularly scheduled programming. Did you check out the thread I told you about? LoL
 
wisnon said:
Paul,
Chillax. I was just poking you as you were doing to me then (3 whole days ago...how did you miss that!). No harm, no foul. I assume that got stale and we have undergone mean reversion.

(1) I said that no one else was looking at, so how do you turn that into no one else understands?

(2) In terms of credibility, who cares? I am not selling anything and like you I just share what I know and what I am allowed to.

(3) Not everything I am told can be repeated online, but all that informs my own world view. I take confidences quite seriously. If you told me stuff but aske me to keep it offline, I would!

Now, back to regularly scheduled programming. Did you check out the thread I told you about? LoL
Click to expand...


My comments:

First Bold Above - No Norman you said this: "Uptone are the only "experts" in this very specialist emerging area." To me the meaning of this statement is obvious and generally consistent with my use of the term "no one else understands."

Second Bold Above - Now that says it all! Accuracy is not high on the list of someone with that attitude.

Third Bold Above - So now we have a fourth option to add to your modus operandi when cornered on veracity. 1) argue non sequiturs; 2) personally attack; 3) retreat cuz your too busy to address the issue; and now 4) the unchallengeable "its a secret" defense. So here is how that works:

Norman - "I am write and you are wrong."

Me - "What about these point that might refute your position."

Norman - "Well regardless, I am write and you are wrong but its a secret so I can't explain why."

Nice Norman, very clever. I can't argue with that now can I? As an aside, mean reversion in distributions with a high standard deviation is of little consequence. I have told you before, I treat everybody the same.
 
tomy2 said:
So I tried putting the jitterbug in both usb ports of my Aries and heard an improvement each time. I know it sounds weird because I don't use a usb cable and therefore don't use any of the usb ports. The port intended for the usb cable had the most detail but could be a little on the thin side.
Click to expand...

That was one of the most interesting things I have read about those devices, the idea that you could use them even if you aren't using a USB DAC.

Fun stuff and just shows how much we usually take for granted when just plugging things in.

EMC (Electromagnetic Compatibility) is a hard thing to achieve, and we usually don't even think of things like ground plane noise and AC-mains injected noise.
 
wisnon said:
Yash, be careful. When I tried to have people understand this, the poster who will not be named tried to belittle the comment. This despite the fact that he clearly did not grasp how async works., nor why Regen is a mini audio breakthru in an area NOBODY else was looking at. JS was motivated to address the (USB SI impact on noise propogation in the Dac) because of his high speed communications signalling background where optimized PDNs are a must and this is his forte. In bringing this to USB audio, he is finding rapid and tangible success.

To address a problem, you have to KNOW that there is a problem, or just be a beneficiary of blind luck.
Click to expand...

No worries, I've seen a lot of naysayers with a lot of misunderstandings and they all get very quiet after a while. :)
 
FlexibleAudio said:
Norman - "I am write and you are wrong."

Me - "What about these point that might refute your position."

Norman - "Well regardless, I am write and you are wrong but its a secret so I can't explain why."
Click to expand...
Do you mean RIGHT or write, here?

Norman- "Sometimes wrong, never in doubt." LoL
 
Yash said:
That was one of the most interesting things I have read about those devices, the idea that you could use them even if you aren't using a USB DAC.

Fun stuff and just shows how much we usually take for granted when just plugging things in.

EMC (Electromagnetic Compatibility) is a hard thing to achieve, and we usually don't even think of things like ground plane noise and AC-mains injected noise.
Click to expand...
Indeed!
 
I have 3 more Jitterbugs coming. I think I took the last one from Amazon the other day...I'm going to try two in the Aries and then two at my office shop. I also have a Regen on order but don't expect it for a few more weeks.

The one Jitterbug I have now I've taken to work and noticed an improvement there just like at home. The only way I can describe it is like without it the music sounds like its behind a curtain or something obstructing it. Dare I say "veil". But with the JB in place the music is a little more forward but very natural and pleasant sounding with an obvious more detailed presentation.
 
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