[canali]

  IDK. I call everything you stick between a computer and a DAC a "magic box", that's how little love I have for those band aid solutions. there isn't one of those products that couldn't be integrated into a DAC, so if I go with the axiom that DAC engineers aren't idiots. if such solution had universal benefit, they would use it in their products right? like galvanized stuff, external power supply, reclocking, noise filtering attempts etc etc. all could help for some problems or not(some might actually degrade the fidelity in some cases). so overall, I go with the idea that if a DAC needs one of those stuff to perform well, and it doesn't have it, then maybe the guy who made the DAC wasn't all that good.

that's how I think, I would sooner change my DAC, or maybe if the computer was really super sucky, get a new usb card or get into a solution that doesn't use USB(optical?), than buy those usb add-ons(and I posted the same kind of rant on the wyrd's topic and a few others, I'm not focused on this little guy, I really just dislike them all ^_^).
 
now just like the wyrd, and other stuff, it's perfectly possible to have one such DAC that I would judge defective with average to poor USB, and get a real improvement with a magic box. so is it still snake oil when it does help a few guys? I don't feel that way. to me snake oil is a placebo and never does anything.
the main problem with those products is how much the general information we get can be divorced from the possible impacts it would have on most systems. when a car has a tire problem, the repair guy will surely try to sell you a lot of useless replacements, but he won't start telling you to add 4 more tires because the car will work better with 8 wheels, or a second oil tank. nobody works like that, we look for the problem and we replace the defective part. only when people absolutely refuse to change their system even though it has problems, should they maybe look into band aids. that's when those products make the most sens IMO. but they're at best solutions for specific problems, not magical sound upgrading boxes. that much is sure.
 
maybe people are to blame for so often seeking solutions to problems they don't have? ^_^

 
and i think this is a very interesting area, given we're all into wanting music to sound better.
 
castleofargh: does your op/analysis (if i read it correctly) equally apply to the
iF purfier
...or to the usb retrogen? 
http://uptoneaudio.com/products/usb-regen
http://uptoneaudio.com/pages/j-swenson-tech-corner
 
it gets confusing because you also get respectable reviewers giving positive reviews of these products.
 
Darko,  for instance, seems to feel some of these conditioners can make somewhat of a difference:
 
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2015/05/on-the-road-with-the-audioquest-jitterbug/
 
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2015/11/from-earth-to-jupiter-ifi-ipurifier-takes-usb-audio-further/
 
excerpt: 
 
The iPurifier will (more likely than not) improve the sound of your digital audio system in almost every respect: more resolving, wider and deeper soundstage, airy on good quality records. That sums to greater emotional wallop and more comfort. I remain astonished by one human being’s genius to create such miniature thing with an ability to change the sound to such a degree. Highly recommended, especially for use in an entry-level system between DAC and computer! Worth the US$99? You know it.
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2015/05/on-the-road-with-the-audioquest-jitterbug/
 
excerpt: 
 
The tiny JitterBug ain’t full o’ *****:
it brings greater vivacity to the midrange, improves on the Astell&Kern’s already respectable talents with separation, most notably cleaving more space around bass notes that now go deeper. Simply put: music played via the AK120 II sounds both more spirited and less synthetic when JitterBugged.
I’ve encountered improvements of a similar nature when reviewing LessLoss DFPC power cables, iFi’s USB power filter and Antipodes Audio music servers. Removing electrical noise makes music sound more natural, more believable.
The magnitude of the JitterBug’s enrichment is comparable to adding Amarra (US$35+) or Audirvana+ (US$74) to iTunes or having an m2Tech hiFace 2 (US$219) intercede between computer USB output and DAC coaxial input. JitterBug’s pricing here is keener still.
In fact, I’ve heard DAC deltas smaller than those heard between the AK120 II with and without JitterBug – yes, the message here is that simple and at a the US$49 asking, the risks of buy-before-you-try are suitably low.
again, i'm no techie, just trying to figure it all out: balancing manufacturer claims against people who've used/critiqued them.

 

[castleofargh]

well you have my general opinion in my last post. people who have problems should look for the best solution to their problem. people who don't even know if they have a problem shouldn't aimlessly look for an imaginary one hoping to get lucky.
if you have a nice soundcard you can RMAA your system for starters to check if something is really wrong with the output signal. but more often than not the DAC will still be ay better than everything else in the chain.

 

[trung224]

    I have tried the Jitterbug (JB) for 14 days before returned it back. For me, among the 3 USB decraptifier I have used (JB, Regen and Wyrd), it is the one which depends most on system. The problems with JB is that it make the treble duller and enhances mid bass and low mid, in addition, it lower the soundstage' height, If your system is bright, you can easily recognize the effect of JB. But if your system is "warm", so the JB effect will be hardly to notice.
   For my taste, the effect JB brings make my system sound worse (unlike the Regen) so I returned them 

 

[canali]

  well you have my general opinion in my last post. people who have problems should look for the best solution to their problem. people who don't even know if they have a problem shouldn't aimlessly look for an imaginary one hoping to get lucky.
if you have a nice soundcard you can RMAA your system for starters to check if something is really wrong with the output signal. but more often than not the DAC will still be ay better than everything else in the chain.

 
thanks...and as you well know this area is nebulous: how to determine if 'the problem' exist and where does it originate: is it with our hardware...software...or headphones...etc.
 
so i appreciate your imput...i just put my links out there as this doesn't seem to be a hard and fast science...yet if not careful, we can spend
needless money on an 'imaginary' solution.
cheers!

 

[Stanley chin]

I think this is not really necessery if you have a good dac.Most dac also will remove the noise in sound processor.But maybe work very well with its dragonfly DAC

 

[music_man]

i am dealing with dacs at the level that should not require anything like this. i put it after the ifi ipurifier and iusb 3.0. sound improved once again i think i will put one on every usb device as these are cheap. the dragon tail is very nice as well and i recommend anyone get it rather than just plug this in the socket. only because it could possibly break a port if you band it around. of course people use thumb drives etc. probably sounds better direct in fact unless the dragon tail is imparting some nice sound as well. i am running 5 meters of their best usb cable too. this is well worth the small change. you would be surprised that with good dacs these type of things should not make a difference but they often do. some things in audio you simply cannot explain. no change on scope whatsoever but i do hear it. even with the ifi gear behind it. it is not shkti stones this is real. what does anyone have to lose for 40 bucks here. in fact the price is very fair. the ifi gear is much more money. i think people would be happy with just one of these though.. 

 

[macdevign]

Recently I acquired a Jitterbug to be connected to Schiit Wyrd then to Eximus Dac. Putting a jitterbug before Wyrd is no-no as the sound loses dynamic and power , and music sounds smear and overly warm. However using Jitterbug alone makes the sound becomes more natural and slower as well with harshness and brightness greatly reduced, at the expense of high  frequency details and treble sparkle.

 

[397324]

I tried a Jitterbug on two Windows 10 computers connected to a FiiO X5ii in DAC mode. The software I used was Foobar 2000, but I did try others. On both systems, the playback would stop with an error reported by the music playing software.
 
Neither the UK retailer or Audioquest seemed overly worried about helping me, so I sold it. Won't be purchasing any Audioquest products again.

 

[music_man]

plug your usb cable straight in the fiio then unplug it and use the jitterbug. should work then.

 

[catalystcc]

Couldn't hear any difference at all with my Hugo > IE800

 

[V1001]

The Jitterbug was the first real tweak I bought for my USB. Believe me I was skeptical. And I always hate putting anything more in the signal path. So I was a little reluctant to start and had my doubts. But for $50 I'm willing to try it. And I think being closed minded and stubborn does no good in the end if there are paths that can lead to a better sound. 
 
So I got it one day, hooked it up.....and....didn't like it. Didn't seem to do much, maybe even made it worse. Flatter soundstage maybe. I don't know, I didn't do extensive testing. It didn't grab me so I wasn't going to bother with it. Instead of returning it I threw it on my USB hub line with all my wireless peripherals and things. Then just forgot about it. But to be honest I think it's possible it helped in that configuration, aftert that I seemed a little more content with my system. But I didn't do any a/b testing so who knows. So there it sat forgotten. 
 
Learning about the jitterbug got me looking at other options. That's when I found the USB Regen by Uptone Audio. I decided to try one more time with this USB tweaking thing. After I hooked that up, WOW that was a big difference and some of the best money I've spent. Made me take a whole other look at the poor quality of USB transmission. At least coming from a computer as the source. 
 
So everything sat for a while like that. And I was happy. 
 
Then I started to take another look at my system. All my wireless was attached to my computer (which is my audio and usb source), and shoved right next to my high end amps and DAC. My wireless mouse receiver, my wireless keyboard, my WiFi antennas. All in a box bouncing around signals all over. That can't possibly be good for any of that. Plus my wifi wasn't very good in there. So I wanted to move it all outside the cabinet. And also away from all my other gear. 
 
Hang in there I'm getting back to the Jitterbug soon 

 
 
So I bought a really nice powered USB  3 hub and a really good Wifi adapter. Moved it all out of the cabinet and away from my audio. That all honestly helped. The background was darker and seemed to have cleaner, better sound. The hub being powered by itself probably helped a lot, clean power that didn't come or go to the PC or cause noise problems (my audio USb doesn't go through that hub though, it's separate). Plus as a bonus my wifi was dramatically better with the new adapter and out in the open.
 
But since the jitterbug isn't USB 3 I couldn't just throw it back on there with that stuff. Didn't seem it would help after that anyway, that USB hub seems pretty clean. I still would have tried it but that hub has to stay USB 3 or it won't be fast enough for my WiFi. So no jitterbug. Ok so now I have this extra jitterbug laying around. Seemed a shame to just chuck it in the drawer. At the very least I'll always wonder if I don't at least try it out now with the USB regen. 
 
So at first I threw it after the USB regen. Wow not good. Sounded DULL and restricted dynamics. I didn't want to put it before the Regen because the Regen was working so well. But I tried it anyway. And bam, that was it. helping to clean up the power and signal noise going to the Regen helped. Guess it helped the Regen do it's thing even better with less noise going to it. Everything was more natural sounding, More fluid and real. Even darker background. I tried A/B testing with it on and off and sure enough, it's better with the Jitterbug on. I didn't like taking it off anymore. Sure it's not going to blow your mind, but it's a nice refinement where once it's gone you miss it and don't feel as content with the music as you did before. And you want it back. And it's not a fake improvement like if you turned up the bass or something, it's like it really lowered the noise floor and made everything sound even more real. I was also thinking it's possible to that the jitterbug needed some break in time maybe and while it was on my other ports before that it was doing just that, breaking in (possibly).
 
This isn't on a cheap DAC either. I use a Nuforce DAC 9. I think it's got some pretty good isolation already. And I'm using the Audioquest Carbon USB wire (which honestly makes a huge improvement alone). But USB as the source I'm finding is pretty much crap in a lot of ways and needs help. Especially coming from your typical computer. 
 
With all that being said I think I might actually replace the jitterbug with one of those ifi USB products that are supposed to be even better. I'll at least do a head to head with them.

 

[V1001]

I'm baffled by the disparity of responses.

Degrades SQ for me...improves for you? Is my setup just cleaner? I do get improvements from the iUSB and the iFi Mercury and Gemini cables, so why not Jitterbug?

 
From how I would understand it is this way:
 
Suppose you add just a plain ole USB adapter to your system. Not an audio one, or anything special, just your typical USB adapter. Adding anything in the line, more connections, more solder, more metal, or whatever, can only subtract from the signal. It can't improve it. So that aspect alone with the Jitterbug would have a slight negative affect and would at least ad some more resistance at the very least. Whether it's audible or not is for another topic. 
 
So I'd imagine if you already have pretty clean USB coming out of your source that the Jitterbug can only degrade the signal. Most people however don't have very clean USB. So the improvement of cleaning up the USB would have a greater affect on the sound than any negative side affects of adding something in the line. So think of it this way,  if the adapter alone causes a 1% loss in signal quality, but the cleaning up of the noise causes a 5% gain in signal and sound quality your net gain is 4 % improvement. But if you already have a clean signal then it's just a 1% loss.  
 
And then you have some others where the jitterbug is working great for their system, but maybe they have a warmer sounding system. Since the Jitterbug will give you a more natural sound and tone down the harsh highs they may not like the jitterbug because they needed those harsher highs to break through their warm system and balance it out. Kind of like how 'brighter' sounding DAC might sound great on overly warm speakers. 
 
And one last thing to consider is that it's a small increase anyway. Someone with a poor resolution system might have to many weak links in the system to even hear the difference something like a jitterbug is doing to help. 
 
At least that's how I kind of see it and made sense to me.

 

[music_man]

not true. i have completely isolated usb power and signal. jitterbug still sounded better to me. don't know how they do it. i am an audioquest fanboy anyways.

 

[leaky74]

I've been playing with one of these all weekend & I still can't make my mind up whether I like the changes it introduces to my setup (Macbook Air, Chord Mojo & HD600's).
 
I actually find the sound a bit harder/edgier and more digital with the device - separation is greater & decay on bass notes seems a bit tighter & more controlled; they don't 'bleed' as much. The most noticeable changes are in the mids which are brought very much front and centre. This is probably more noticeable with the HD600s as they're pretty much pan flat neutral? Details in the mids also seems a little improved but all this seems to be at the expense of the staging (which seems to be narrowed a pinch) & general 'airiness'.
 
I've owned a Dragonfly in the past and the changes to my set up with the Jitterbug in place very much remind me of that.
 
Still undecided, but gut feel at the moment is that I'll probably send it back....  

 

[music_man]

alll of these things make a difference for sure. if you like it is up to you. there is no right or wrong about these type of devices. however, i am wary of most dacs that run off the +5v. the teac accepts it but does not run off it. so please don't take my liking of those teacs for foolery. plus i like them for what they are they are not supposed to be high end dacs. however i found they made the most noticeable difference on dacs that do accept any +5v into them. that does not include my modded 501 of course which is not even really teac anymore. higher end dacs it makes a difference but not entirely sure it is always better. on some tracks. i am not going to go unplugging my cable all the time though. i am just leaving my myriad of usb fixes in place.