[Hershon2000]

I keep hearing the term jitter & I don't quite understand what this means in terms of what I'm actually hearing. Can someone please try to explain what this is in terms of it being noticeable to what we're actually hearing or is it something that we're not hearing that we should be hearing? Thanks

 

[sebascrub]

I think that it sounds like minor skips, even though there should be no skipping. It's like the music falls in and out of sync in less than a second. I don't know, though...I may be wrong...

 

[Hershon2000]

None of my CDs skip period unless I've gotten them dirty, banged them up or misused them. I have never had a pristine CD or one that hasn't been in excellent condition skip on me. Therefore, if this is in fact what jitter is, I think spend vast sums of money to prevent this is ridiculous. If its something that is noticeably hearing wise however, if something is missing something or if something unecessary is in the music when playing it, that's another story.

 

[ezkcdude]

It doesn't sound like skipping.

 

[Sean H]

I'd do some searches on the internet or here to learn more about jitter and such. Jitter isn't really something specific you hear, like "ah, yes, there, I heard jitter." Jitter is a subtle distortion and most describe it as affecting the audiblity of fine details in the music, like a lack of defintion of them. Often people describe jitter as affecting "focus", which again relates to the defintition of fine details and many relate this to the image our mind "sees" with things like "imaging" of instruments in space and the soundstage. That's a very simple way of describing what affects jitter has on what we hear.

 

[sum]

The only way to know that your hearing jitter (before you know what to listen for) is to hear the music on the same system with and without jitter. If you have a DAC with poor jitter correction, you can do this by using a poor source and a good source. A large amount of jitter causes a few things; collapses the sound stage, blurs the imaging, and hides the more subtle details. I personally cannot stand a system with a high amount of jitter because I know how much better the system can perform.

 

[lini]

some more info there: http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=198428

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[HumanMedia]

Murkiness, grayness.

 

[bigshot]

Jitter is something that can only be described in numbers. It can't be heard.

See ya
Steve

 

[tourmaline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot /img/forum/go_quote.gif Jitter is something that can only be described in numbers. It can't be heard. See ya Steve

Yet, the cdplayers with less jitter sound simply better.

 

[Konig]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hershon2000 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I keep hearing the term jitter & I don't quite understand what this means in terms of what I'm actually hearing. Can someone please try to explain what this is in terms of it being noticeable to what we're actually hearing or is it something that we're not hearing that we should be hearing? Thanks

im not a pro on this issue but im 100% sure it doesnt skip. Its just that the music doesnt sound AS focused and AS dynamic as one without jitter. However removing the jitter can make some recording too dry sometimes if its not well recorded i believe.

 

[HumanMedia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot /img/forum/go_quote.gif Jitter is something that can only be described in numbers. It can't be heard. See ya Steve

There are downloadable examples of recordings with jitter added. Listen to them yourself before detracting from this discussion with your fabrications.

 

[Epicurean]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HumanMedia /img/forum/go_quote.gif There are downloadable examples of recordings with jitter added. Listen to them yourself before detracting from this discussion with your fabrications.

Links, please!

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

Jitter, it's an interesting thing. Some people define it very distinctly, some people think that it's anything affecting the cleanliness and timing of the digital output signal. Me, haven't got a clue.

What I can talk about is the impact of improving a digital source. I've gone from a DVD player as a transport, via a dedicated tranport, to a transport with clock mods, improved power cable and well isolated, which I guess should have improved the digital output signal.
Along the way, each of those changes has resulted in a cleaner sound, less mush, better definition, more "naturalness", though the basic sound as still retained it's speed and structure.

So working the other way round, I guess that means that "jitter" refers to more hash, less definition, more grunge etc. Hope that helps.

 

[PiccoloNamek]

Quote:

There are downloadable examples of recordings with jitter added. Listen to them yourself before detracting from this discussion with your fabrications.

Somebody posted a link to such a website once. I don't recall anybody being able to hear. I certainly couldn't tell the difference. You shouldn't be able to hear real, actual jitter, unless you're an android.