Jitter's audible effects

We all know jitter, in digital audio, isn't something we want. But why? How does it sound? How does it affect the way our systems perform and what does it do to the music? PS Audio consulting digital expert, Ted Smith, gives us a clear picture of what damage jitter does with the music.

[rasz]

I like all the noise in this recording, true sign of audio enthusiast

[ZeroG]

Why don't you just play two sounds, one with high jitter and one with low jitter...? I have been thru 10 freakin videos and no one gives examples..!

[eatricez]

Jitter wont matter if the A/D converters are driven by the same local oscillator. Since you can easily purchase oscillator with inter period jitter <10ppm, no one will be able to tell the difference between a clock with 400 ppm and <10ppm jitter because it has no effect on the A/D conversion. The fact that people on here are saying you will loose "bits" due to jitter is absolutely hilarious and completely ridiculous. To many people are claiming that they are audiophiles with art degrees and no one asks an actual EE for advise. If you claim that your devices have exception jitter performance and it does indeed manifest itself in output performance then please publicly publish an 1Khz pulse train from your amplifiers compared to a competitors. I will personally do the stability analysis via Allan Variance and Hadamard Variance and will show you why it has no effect on performance. Source: PhD EE.

[miguelangelrodriguezandreu]

La gente que niega los efectos audibles del jitter en SPDIF no han pensado que SPDIF es una transmisión síncrona y el reloj maestro depende del esclavo por lo que si el reloj esclavo tiene muchas fluctuaciones el dispositivo receptor no podrá hacer prácticamente nada por eliminarlas por lo que un dispositivo con una implementación muy mala de SPDIF puede degradar la señal con efectos audibles.

[rich]

When jitter gets high enough, you can hear a very quick 'click' when it happens at the edge of your perception. If you are paying attention when it happens, it is obvious. I guess it is the timing catching up or delaying chopping up the wave form which sounds like a click to the ear.

As far as toslink jitter goes... *cough* bullshit *cough* I have no idea where this comes from. Optical is great, it actually gets rid of an actual cause of problems, ground loops and EMI.

[MKBEntertainment]

With modern digital devices jitter is typically 110 to 120 dB below the music, even for inexpensive consumer-grade gear. In my experience that is far too soft to be audible. Indeed, this is 20 dB or more below the noise floor of a CD!

[miguelangelrodriguezandreu]

Tengo un decodificador de TV barato que tiene salida SPDIF Toslink y cuando lo conecto a un DAC por Toslink el sonido se oye muy distorsionado y sin claridad, un día coloque un conmutador Toslink de 4 entradas en mi DAC y cuando probé el decodificador a través del conmutador la claridad del sonido mejoró enormemente, he desarmado el conmutador por curiosidad y lleva un chip VHC153, un STC11 y un modulador de cristal de cuarzo de 16Mhz, no se nada de electrónica pero si no me equivoco son un microcontrolador y un multiplexor.
¿Es posible que mi decodificador genere grandes cantidades de jitter y el conmutador lo ha aliviado al resincronizar la señal con su propio reloj? ¿Es posible que mi conmutador pueda hacer esto?

[aaront]

This gentleman offers excellent insight on the topic. For those of us who have recorded numerous songs on various digital formats over the years, we can relate to unexplained 'hazy', 'slightly distorted' audio appearing at the end of a lot of hard work. The decay of a cymbal could be affected by numerous conditions in the recording process, but I get what he is saying in relation to the jitter topic. This video is not for everybody, but insightful as part an often frustrating element in the digital puzzle. Thanks!

[christopherharv]

Does jitter have anything to do with that terrible high-end warbled, garbled, whooshing sound that comes in around 10kHz and above when you upload audio to Facebook or sometimes Soundcloud? Does anybody know the sound that I'm talking about? A mix can sound fine in your DAW but when you upload it to Facebook or sometimes to SoundCloud the high highs get all warped and tinny sounding.

[EthanWiner]

This video is disappointing. I thought I would learn what jitter sounds like, but all that Ted talks about - front to back depth, clarity of a decaying cymbal - can be easily explained by poor room acoustics. It amazes me that people obsess over jitter artifacts that are 20-30 dB below the noise floor of a CD (think about that!), but ignore the distortion of their loudspeakers and the 30+ dB peak and null spans in their listening room.

[Leo-ynfx]

Mistuned fm station. That is exactly what my audio sounded like from the dac directly to my gaming pc(beefy 3090 rtx) until I plugged in a ddc. Night and day difference.

[oortone]

If there's audible noise disturbances on old computer systems it might as well be electrical HF noise by induction or capacitance. Not necessarily jitter per se. It could be both before and after conversion to analogue.

[johnh]

I have an RME ADI 2 fs DAC so maybe I am lucky, but I do wander for how small a percentage of systems actually suffer from Jitter.
Your example "...reading off disks.." is like comparing an arrow to a guided missile every component, clocks etc has improved.
I am on full fibre, then galvanically insulated ethernet cable does that mean I don't have signal fase issues to start with?
Will the slightest tweak of the positioning of your speakers not offset femtosecond differences in timing at the "Sweet spot"
I am not in any anti jitter camp I just am interested in aspects beyond if it exists or not.
I think that there should be more options in dealing with it, even if that is just switch the fase button in many systems, before considering more money on a solution to what may not be the problem . Especially if the sceptics are right then any audible imperfections in your sound are caused by something unrelated.
👍it's nice to have an expert to question. I will not be offended if many of the assumptions in my points you can explain why I am wrong? I am not technical, but I am a Torus. first convince me then I am happy to change my tune (Pun intended) entirely.

[kwacked]

On my audio system I can hear more jitter on the Toslink between the CD and DAC than on the digital coax cable. I experience jitter two ways. 1) Jitter sounds more harsh to me. It is like running a finger over a smooth surface and running a finger over very fine grit sandpaper. 2) When there is more jitter (more harshness) I also notice my nerves are slightly more on edge. Less jitter (or even less harshness in a system) and my nerves relax. The effects are subtle but for me noticeable. This connection between my hearing and my nerves is much more sensitive in me than other people I know.

[fiddlefolk]

I spent time trying to EQ something that didn’t sound quite right. Got a clock n bye bye to anomaly EQ problems and the mixed opened up. Noticed it immediately. I couldn’t see spending money on a clock like everyone else until I finally did. Big difference

[garymiles]

I grew up with vinyl and tape and accepted the quality for what it was, and then CD's came out, and the "true audiophiles" complained about that.
It will get to the point when these audiophiles try to reinvent the wheel and the community will spend the rest of the time arguing about what colour it should be.

[Turboy]

Jitter is a timing error. A timing error manifests as a frequency error. Pitch errors. The Stereophile test CD no. 2 demonstrates audible jitter. This should be something you can hear in even a cheap audio system.

[MrTruth]

2:50 our ears don't just locate sounds based on volume differences! Our part of the brain that receives the signals from the ears is more like a holographic processor. Tiny phase differences in the timing in difference in reaching our ears allows us to determine where the sound comes from, besides this the sound bending round our heads changes and those minute colorations also give us directional clues. Imagine just how good our brain is, that you can locate sounds from above, behind, side, front. If it would be just volume then we wouldn't have all these problems with audio, and we would all have 36.4 audio in our homes. 2.0 or 2.1 is the only format that is acceptable to our ears, but sadly doesn't make full use of our ears abbilities. Surround sound is never truely surround sound, it is nice effects coming from the side or the rear, with no coherence with the front speakers, just an added source. The only way for us to have perfect sound is a perfect binaural headphone (discussed @ PS Audio) but the problem with that is that each of our heads and brain is different and perfect binaural audio would be a whole shelf of acedemic works and massive personalized dsp. But if you want the best stereo effect it is best to use a single source full range driver in a matched pair.

[henni]

Jitter, in my understanding, is a problem of timing in the digital domain. In my experience, jitter only becomes audible in a very nasty way (e.g. harshness, details getting lost, uninvolving sound, lose mid bass and bass performance) when using a rotating digital disc (one's own cds or sacds). It seems nearly impossible to get a jitter free digital stream out of these discs when playing them as intended. Just my 2c.

[BurstNibbler]

Great video, I completely agree. I had a cheap plastic TOSLINK ebay cable from TV to DAC which got chewed by a gerbil and I sellotaped it back together after cutting the ends flat. It worked however I replaced it with a 'decent' glass 60 buck TOSLINK which is advertised as low jitter, good reviews, etc. Even the wife noticed how the soundstage was clearer and more solid and I hadn't told her about the cable upgrade.