How Does Jitter Affect the Sound Quality of Digital Audio?

Jitter is a subject that reaps a lot of interest but not much understanding. However, it's become a bit of a buzzword in the HiFi community. Especially when companies are using the word as marketing fluff to sell you "tweaks" for your system. Essentially, jitter is timing errors in your digital audio signal. In this video, I will break down the different types of jitter, how it affects your system, whether it's audible and how you can prevent unnecessary jitter contributions to your system.

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#jitter #digitalaudio #hifi #soundquality

0:00 Intro
1:50 Types of Jitter
2:25 Is Jitter Audible?
3:12 Best Way to Prevent Jitter

[michaelwright]

I have heard it before, this noise or jitter, on older computer systems with cheap sound cards, or DACs. But it has been a few years since I have heard any, the equipment I have now, I really don't see it as an issue. With my new Cambridge CXN V2, they have the clocking and anti-jitter circuits built in. I thought of purchasing a reclocker anti-jitter device, but I really see no need at this point. I'm happy with what I have as it gets the job done. The sound is clear and precise to my ear, if there is anything in there, it is normally from a piss poor recording, as there are more than a few of those floating around out there. If I had, say a $60, 000 system vs my $6000 system, this may be an issue, but I am a long way from there.

[Bassic]

Thank you for a great and understandable explanation. That is one of the coolest T-shirts that I've ever seen and I just ordered one and am now a subscriber!!!

[blastfromtheeast]

I used to have a Sony Compact mini system back in late 90s. Compared to my current system, I can tell that compact system had a much higher noise level. Basically albms I heard over the years sounds much more clean and smooth now. I feel the sound of albums got imprinted on my mind over repeated listenings. I recently looked up specs on that Sony systems and saw it had much higher THD. From the on I assign such high noise to high THD + N. Used a Jitterbug with AQ Dragonfly Red on my laptop. Couldn't tell the difference with or without the jitterbug.

[thisisnev]

Thank you for cutting through the BS about 'jitter'! I've been shouted down by 'audiophiles' whenever I've asked "But what does jitter actually sound like?" - yet nobody ever answers the question.

[hi-fihaven]

Totally enjoyed the video Mike. I am stoked you are going to be reviewing the A23+.

[stevejohnson]

One youtube channel argues that the CD hole may be punched "off-center" and causing jitter. If this were true, wouldn't oversampling catch-up and correct? It's not like an analog table whereas you want speed close to synchronous as possible. If the data isn't coming quickly enough, the motor will speed up. Personally, it seems there are more important factors to be concerned about.

[kennethoransky]

Frankly I don't know if I could recognize jitter if it was present.

[heavychevy]

love that tshirt... going on my "gift wish list" ...thank u sir

[LIL-MAN-THE-OG]

Not gonna lie.. I wasn't sure if jitter was that much a concern... But once I got the Audio-gd Di20 DDC with USB, digital coax and clock out outputs, that bad boy cleans up the signal way over what I had before it's crazy. So much more vibrant, clear and with separation. I'm not lying these black boxes work. Along with a power conditioner it's otherworldly.

[mychaelsmith]

Here is the answer
Jitter is a solved problem and is not worth thinking about.

[davidwilcox]

I use the Parasound P6 and A23+ amp so I'm looking forward to your review.

[ranbymonkeys]

Hey Mike a good one to tackle is "dithering", haha. Have fun with that one. It does what now, puts in distortion to get rid of....ughhhh whatever!!!

[edgecrushr]

Most time its something completely else (like analogue interferce after the DAC), or very bad DAC design to start with. On a transport level (assuming we are talking about TCP networking) there must be a complete lack of buffering on the enpoint device, as TCP will garantee the order that packets are transmitted, received and acknowledged. On a bad network, you could have a delay between packets which would cause stuttering, but this would be pretty darn bad just for music transport. audiophile network switches IS snake-oil for this fact alone. Now on the USB device (USB interface itself), it a bit more interesting as USB specification addresses jitter and has clock specifacations, which in theory could be given a bad usb implementation. I think reclocking here could in theory offer something, but please correct me here if my conclusion is wrong.

[rickp]

Could you review the all new Quantum Science Audio PowerJitter Power Counditioner-Silver and QSA Ultra Black-Red AC Outlets from Tweek Geek ? Thanks !

[pasikokkonen]

Very good and reasonable take on this matter.

[guyboisvert]

Jitter is really not an issue even if companies want you to believe otherwise... Jitter is noise, easy to understand in engineering, but badly presented by peddlers majority of the time...

[Musicman]

What about streaming from my phone, no hard hook up ?

[chuckmaddison]

Something that has been mentioned on another video and that's vibration.
So does vibration cause jitter.
Or just a total single failure ii you hit it hard enough ?

[Leo-ynfx]

I'm a very sensitive audio listener especially when i pay top dollar for equipment. That being said i just wanna point out that jitter is a real deal in my case if you plug the dac(unless you have a may or 3k dac and above) directly to a gaming pc that's beefy like mine(3090x with intel via USB AUDIO), the content/music you play through your setup is gonna sound like a mistuned fm station, and just muffled and out of place. Get a ddc cause jitter is a real thing. Once i plugged mine in it was like summer and winter difference. Unbelievable difference. Does it sound better? Yeah because it doesn't sound like the damn high frequencies are shouting at me anymore.

[andysummersthxcinemaandmyc]

i am giving 3rd name to my cat Bear rambo, now Bear rambo "jitter" has he does jitter about most times .
i hear harmonic frequencies with sine wave not sure of jitter if it is so low down the -dB noise floor i'm not concerned unless it was loud jitter ?