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This is a review of Audioquest JitterBug - USB Data & Power Noise Filter. http://www.audioquest.com/jitterbug/jitterbug . Big Thanks to Audioquest for providing me with a review sample.
Some of you are familiar with Audioquest as a company behind a popular DragonFly usb DAC, while others probably know Audioquest as a company behind various analog and digital cables. Recently AQ expanded their product line with a release of NightHawk headphones, but in this review I will focus on something brand new – a compact usb noise filter that cleans and enhances the performance of a signal transmitted over USB bus. Considering their focus on quality usb cables and usb DAC, It makes a perfect sense for AQ to release a product that cleans up a digital signal before sending it to external usb DAC device where it gets decoded to analog audio signal.
Before I go any further, I can imagine that some of you might have a question: isn’t digital signal just 0s and 1s? How can a wire or a filter make a difference in this case? From my previous cable reviews, I’m well aware that some people strongly believe it’s a snake oil because they “read” about it somewhere on-line, mostly referencing a single source of some old sound engineer who ran a debunking seminar. When it comes to cables (analog or digital) I only trust my ears, and I have a firsthand experience with cables while testing my audio gear. Yes, I’m a cable believer because I can hear a difference, not because I read about it somewhere else. But for those who would like a simple explanation: digital audio data transfer includes both the data and the timing info. Degradation of a signal due to a lower quality cable will cause skew in the analog square edges of “digital” pulse (1s are just analog square pulses when you look on the scope) which results in a timing inaccuracy that will cause jitter and packet errors.
If you think about USB cable design, you are dealing with a pair of data wires and a pair of power wires (5V vbus and ground). Digital data and power from your PC/laptop usb port inevitably going to have some noise as well as being susceptible to EMI and RFI. The attached portable USB audio device is relying on getting its power from USB port, and this “dirty” power reference is used in D/A conversion to extract analog signal. Noisy power reference will cause errors during decoding and consequently will raise a noise floor. That is a reason why all standalone desktop DACs/amps use a massive power supply to provide a clean internal power source independent of the power from a digital cable.
The main function of JitterBug, while utilizing its dual discrete noise dissipation circuit, is to reduce the noise on the data and the power lines of usb cable, to improve the data flow by reducing the jitter and packet errors, and to shield your external DAC from EMI, RFI, and other high frequency noise coming from your PC/laptop usb port. Plugging JitterBug directly into usb port helps with the later one, and its dual filter (discrete analog circuit) takes care of the actual filtering. I assume it filters out a content of the high frequency noise and conditions the edges of data pulses. It’s impossible to get rid of noise completely, but it’s quite feasible to reduce/attenuate it to the point where you can hear an improvement in sound.
Since I didn’t receive JitterBug in its final manufacturing packaging, I can only describe how product looks by itself, but from unboxing experience of other Audioquest products I have no doubt it will be a colorful box with a lot of info about the product. Out-of-the-box it looks like a small plain usb stick. It’s a simple discrete filtering device that should operate transparently without any requirements to select or to configure anything – just a simple plug’n’play.
Design details.
I don’t expect everybody to hear the same results using this little device, but the difference will be more apparent using higher end audio equipment (quality usb DAC or standalone DAC and less colored high res headphones) playing higher resolution lossless audio.
With DragonFly (next to DragonTail usb extension cable).
With DragonFly and JitterBug in comparison to DragonFly alone I found a sound to be a little bit louder, noise floor to be lower which improves SNR thus having a louder sound perception. Overall sound is a little tighter, faster, and a bit crispier. Without JitterBug a sound from DragonFly is a bit smoother, slower, and background is not as black.
With GeekOut 450 (next to DragonTail usb extension cable).
With GeekOut 450 and JitterBug in comparison to GO450 alone I found a sound level to be nearly the same, noise floor was a touch lower and sound was a bit tighter. In comparison the change was very subtle, perhaps GO does its own internal filtering?
With Schiit FULLA (next to DragonTail usb extension cable).
With FULLA and JitterBug in comparison to FULLA alone I hear the same improvement as with DragonFly (a little louder, lower noise floor, improved S/N), black background, faster attack, a bit crispier. I found the improvement to be more noticeable than GO450, but not as much as with DragonFly, probably somewhere in-between.
Conclusion.
I can see for sure that a lot of JitterBug testing and fine-tuning was done around DragonFly usb DAC since it yielded the best improvement in reduction/lowering of the noise floor. The results are very noticeable when you hear a pitch black background with a clean and clear transient of notes, especially in more instrumental and less complicated music compositions where sound has a room to breathe. The improvements are also noticeable with other usb DAC devices, but to a different degree. In my opinion, for under $50 (JitterBug price) this will be a very valuable upgrade for anybody who has an external usb audio interface. USB cable upgrade is something that you have to think about due to a price spread over different cable grades and diminishing returns as you go up in price, but JitterBug is really a no-brainer even if you continue to use your stock usb cables or usb cable extensions.
Connected to ThinkPad T430s (Win7) with DragonTail/JitterBug/DragonFly/EL-8C
Some of you are familiar with Audioquest as a company behind a popular DragonFly usb DAC, while others probably know Audioquest as a company behind various analog and digital cables. Recently AQ expanded their product line with a release of NightHawk headphones, but in this review I will focus on something brand new – a compact usb noise filter that cleans and enhances the performance of a signal transmitted over USB bus. Considering their focus on quality usb cables and usb DAC, It makes a perfect sense for AQ to release a product that cleans up a digital signal before sending it to external usb DAC device where it gets decoded to analog audio signal.
Before I go any further, I can imagine that some of you might have a question: isn’t digital signal just 0s and 1s? How can a wire or a filter make a difference in this case? From my previous cable reviews, I’m well aware that some people strongly believe it’s a snake oil because they “read” about it somewhere on-line, mostly referencing a single source of some old sound engineer who ran a debunking seminar. When it comes to cables (analog or digital) I only trust my ears, and I have a firsthand experience with cables while testing my audio gear. Yes, I’m a cable believer because I can hear a difference, not because I read about it somewhere else. But for those who would like a simple explanation: digital audio data transfer includes both the data and the timing info. Degradation of a signal due to a lower quality cable will cause skew in the analog square edges of “digital” pulse (1s are just analog square pulses when you look on the scope) which results in a timing inaccuracy that will cause jitter and packet errors.
If you think about USB cable design, you are dealing with a pair of data wires and a pair of power wires (5V vbus and ground). Digital data and power from your PC/laptop usb port inevitably going to have some noise as well as being susceptible to EMI and RFI. The attached portable USB audio device is relying on getting its power from USB port, and this “dirty” power reference is used in D/A conversion to extract analog signal. Noisy power reference will cause errors during decoding and consequently will raise a noise floor. That is a reason why all standalone desktop DACs/amps use a massive power supply to provide a clean internal power source independent of the power from a digital cable.
The main function of JitterBug, while utilizing its dual discrete noise dissipation circuit, is to reduce the noise on the data and the power lines of usb cable, to improve the data flow by reducing the jitter and packet errors, and to shield your external DAC from EMI, RFI, and other high frequency noise coming from your PC/laptop usb port. Plugging JitterBug directly into usb port helps with the later one, and its dual filter (discrete analog circuit) takes care of the actual filtering. I assume it filters out a content of the high frequency noise and conditions the edges of data pulses. It’s impossible to get rid of noise completely, but it’s quite feasible to reduce/attenuate it to the point where you can hear an improvement in sound.
Since I didn’t receive JitterBug in its final manufacturing packaging, I can only describe how product looks by itself, but from unboxing experience of other Audioquest products I have no doubt it will be a colorful box with a lot of info about the product. Out-of-the-box it looks like a small plain usb stick. It’s a simple discrete filtering device that should operate transparently without any requirements to select or to configure anything – just a simple plug’n’play.
Design details.
I don’t expect everybody to hear the same results using this little device, but the difference will be more apparent using higher end audio equipment (quality usb DAC or standalone DAC and less colored high res headphones) playing higher resolution lossless audio.
With DragonFly (next to DragonTail usb extension cable).
With DragonFly and JitterBug in comparison to DragonFly alone I found a sound to be a little bit louder, noise floor to be lower which improves SNR thus having a louder sound perception. Overall sound is a little tighter, faster, and a bit crispier. Without JitterBug a sound from DragonFly is a bit smoother, slower, and background is not as black.
With GeekOut 450 (next to DragonTail usb extension cable).
With GeekOut 450 and JitterBug in comparison to GO450 alone I found a sound level to be nearly the same, noise floor was a touch lower and sound was a bit tighter. In comparison the change was very subtle, perhaps GO does its own internal filtering?
With Schiit FULLA (next to DragonTail usb extension cable).
With FULLA and JitterBug in comparison to FULLA alone I hear the same improvement as with DragonFly (a little louder, lower noise floor, improved S/N), black background, faster attack, a bit crispier. I found the improvement to be more noticeable than GO450, but not as much as with DragonFly, probably somewhere in-between.
Conclusion.
I can see for sure that a lot of JitterBug testing and fine-tuning was done around DragonFly usb DAC since it yielded the best improvement in reduction/lowering of the noise floor. The results are very noticeable when you hear a pitch black background with a clean and clear transient of notes, especially in more instrumental and less complicated music compositions where sound has a room to breathe. The improvements are also noticeable with other usb DAC devices, but to a different degree. In my opinion, for under $50 (JitterBug price) this will be a very valuable upgrade for anybody who has an external usb audio interface. USB cable upgrade is something that you have to think about due to a price spread over different cable grades and diminishing returns as you go up in price, but JitterBug is really a no-brainer even if you continue to use your stock usb cables or usb cable extensions.
Connected to ThinkPad T430s (Win7) with DragonTail/JitterBug/DragonFly/EL-8C
