AudioQuest JitterBug USB Filter Review

[solderdude]

That's pretty silly, every true audiophile knows empty ports need a EUR 249 terminator like this
View attachment 41287
http://www.myhifishop.de/Voodoo-Ecke/AQVOX-USB-Detoxer-USB-A-Terminator-USB-Entstoerung::82.html

As luck would have it, the same fine establishment can also furnish you with a choice of exotic digital cabling!

EDIT: bonus picture, detox your unused ethernet ports with a crystal, only EUR 19,90 a pop
View attachment 41294
Seems we cannot come up with a ridiculous enough "product", they all exist!

Where do you find this sh!t or even know it exists ?

 

[KxDx]

I’ve 2 Jitterbugs I have no use for and have been stored in a drawer for many years I would offer for sale, cheap.
Open to offers, lol

I'll take them for free, if you pay shipping!

 

[amirm]

So was the Jitterbug also supplying USB power to the Schiit?

Yes, the Schiit Modi 2 has a single cable for data and power.

And in any case, a power supply dip ought to affect both channels, no?

It did. I just noted it about one channel. Here it is again without Jitterbug:

And with Jitterbug:

As you see both channels dropped by the same 10 millivolts.

 

[matgir99]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the AudioQuest JitterBug USB data and power noise filter. It is on kind loan from a member. The Jitterbug costs US $60 from Amazon including prime shipping. I purchased a JitterBug back in 2015 when it had recently come out and my measurements showed it to have no positive effect. If anything, it seemed to add some noise that wasn't in the output of the DAC. As if to get revenge, my dog got a hold of it and chewed up the case but magically, the circuit itself survived! Anyway, this is a second look at a non-chewed up version.

The Jitterbug is an inline USB device with non-remarkable look:

View attachment 41204​

You just put it inline with your USB cable and it performs its magic. That magic is this according to AudioQuest:

View attachment 41205​

From prior testing of other USB decrapifiers, if real error is induced in USB transmission, the result is severe static and audible flaws. It does not have the effect they describe ("flat and irritating sound"). I also don't know how noise causes sound depth to decrease. If anything, a bit of noise sometimes helps give that illusion (due to increased high frequencies). Regardless, we can measure noise and distortion very easily so let's get into that.

Since different DACs have varying sensitives to USB bus in theory, I tested the JitterBug with four different DACs:

Topping D50s Measurements
Topping D50s is a good test case here since it has independent USB power and data, allowing us to test the JitterBug on each cable independently. Let's start with a 1 kHz tone:

View attachment 41206

This is a high resolution FFT transform with averaging which allows us to see the smallest differences. Indeed we see many spikes here and there at whopping -130 dB or so. Our hearing threshold is around -116 dB so these are not audible yet very much instrumentable. As we see though, the Jitterbug makes no difference whether we put it on the USB data cable (blue) or power line (green).

The device is called "jitterBug" so perhaps it reduces jitter:
View attachment 41207

Out of luck again. There are tiny differences which vary from moment to moment. This demonstrate how sensitive our instrumentation is that it catches the device literally breathing a bit higher or lower. Yet no improvement can be seen from JitterBug on either cable (data or power).

Let's get rid of our source signal and just look at noise spectrum:
View attachment 41208

The power supply noise as represented by multiples of 60 Hz starting at 120 Hz is there and not at all reduced via Jitterbug.

Maybe Topping D50s is too good to need Jitterbug. So let's step down to Topping D10 DAC which retails close to what JitterBug costs:

Topping D10 Measurements
Let's start with our usual dashboard starting with D10 by itself:
View attachment 41210

The D10 jumps up and down 1 to 2 dB on its own in SINAD department. So run to run variations change a bit. Taking that into account here is the D10 with Jitterbug:

View attachment 41211

The output level is the same. Frequency is the same. THD+N/SINAD is a hair different but again, the D10 by itself varies in this department. And Jitterbug had no effect on it. If it truly reduced noise levels in the output of the DAC, it should have made this variation smaller. But it did not.

Here is our 1 kHz spectrum:
View attachment 41212

Jitterbug version has higher second harmonic but I think that is run to run variation. There is certainly no noise reduction even though both data and power are running through the JitterBug.

ifi iDSD Audio Measurements
Here are its two dashboards:

View attachment 41213

View attachment 41214

Again, output voltage and frequency are the same. Same small run to run variation exists in SINAD/THD+N.

Schiit Modi 2 USB DAC Measurements
The most sensitive (and worst implementation of USB) that I know of is on Schiit USB Modi 2 DAC. So I usually resort to using it to check for effect of USB decrapifiers. Let's start with its dashboard alone:
View attachment 41215

Notice the high noise floor. Let's run its input through JitterBug:
View attachment 41217

Notice that the output voltage in channel 1 dropped from 1.596 to 1.586. I verified that this was due to Jitterbug as it was consistent. The JitterBug is causing some voltage drop on the USB bus. And due to poor regulation inside Modi 2 DAC, we readily see that. So if JitterBug could do anything, it would be with this DAC. Alas, that is not the case. SINAD which is the sum of distortion and noise relative to our signal remains at the same (poor) level of 74 dB.

Let's run our jitter test:
View attachment 41218

Looks like jitter has actually worsened just a hair with JitterBug (in red)! Not a source of concern though but shows that we can measure a negative effect here, not positive.

Noise spectrum shows no improvement whatsoever with JitterBug despite 250 kHz bandwidth of the measurement:
View attachment 41219

Listening Tests
I hooked up the Modi 2 to the excellent SMSL THX SP200 headphone amplifier and used my Sennheiser HD-650 headphones for comparisons. I queued up an excellent track with great soundstage and detail and played it without the Jitter bug through Roon player. I then disconnected and quickly reconnected using JitterBug. Roon is nice in the way it reinitialized the USB device and was ready to play in around 5 seconds. While too long for any definitive judgments, I hear no difference at all. I then took out the JitterBug and the result was the same.

Conclusions
We can easily demonstrate that devices like JitterBug cannot work. USB is a high-speed bus. You cannot filter it without causing the data to be corrupted. So any filtering that JitterBug performs there must be well into Megahertz region and hence outside of audible band. Since data transmission to a USB DAC is highly reliable anyway, filter does no good. As to filtering of the USB power, the DAC itself has a regulator and filter of its own. Adding the tiny bit of filtering JitterBug has is like spitting in an ocean and expecting its level to rise.

But it is always good to confirm our understandings using precise measurements. Measurements that can dig way, way deeper than levels we can hear. There, across four different DACs, there is no difference that can be detected in any measurement from distortion to noise and jitter. The only differences were seen were negative in the form of tiny output level and increased jitter in Modi 2.

Bottom line, the AudioQuest Jitterbug does one only one thing: it filters your bank account, reducing your balance by $60. If anyone can demonstrate that it makes an audible difference in a controlled blind test, I will donate US $600 to the charity of their choosing.

Please save your money folks. Give it to Charity. Go have a great dinner. Anything but rewarding people who build these useless devices that attempt to solve problems that don't exist.

--------
As always, questions, comments, corrections, etc. are welcome.

Yes, I have hired a new panther to model for me. He is made of pewter so didn't come cheap. I appreciate donations to refill my account using : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Too bad I bought it 2 yrs ago... It's probably some kind of subconscious psychological influence I have on myself but when I use it i think the highs are a bit attenuated and overall nicer. the bass might also become punchier. In any case I wouldn't buy it after having seen these results

 

[imagidominc]

Stuff like this is why objective measurements are so important. Anyone can claim that a magic usb thumb drive makes their music sound better.

 

[Eirikur]

Where do you find this sh!t or even know it exists ?

Ah, Sir is a connaisseur! May I recommend the woodlenses, to (and I quote) "Get ridd of the metallic sound..."

They come with specifications too: "Dimensions: 40 mm x 25 mm (D x h) with slight manufacturing tolerances.", nothing unscientific about that.

 

[rubley00]

I'll happily match the donation amount.

 

[dense]

There's a similar product selling in Japan from Pioneer and they have before and after graphs that show improvements, but don't understand what it means. Too lazy to run translation.
https://jpn.pioneer/ja/pcperipherals/bonnesnotes/aps-dr001/
I wonder what these are made out of since the highest tier costs around 500 bucks.

＜「DRESSING」無し＞

＜「DRESSING」有り＞

 

[Cahudson42]

Ok

Ah, Sir is a connaisseur! May I recommend the woodlenses, to (and I quote) "Get ridd of the metallic sound..."
View attachment 41315
They come with specifications too: "Dimensions: 40 mm x 25 mm (D x h) with slight manufacturing tolerances.", nothing unscientific about that.

Ok - hard to beat that one. But maybe I've got an idea for making my first million:

'New! Speaker Pure Spherical Surrounds!

'These new spherical fiber-reinforced rubberized Surrounds are perfect for enclosing your angular rectangular cabinet speakers. Pressurized to 50psi with pure hi-density CO2, these rubberized shrouds efficiently distribute the sound waves of the single vertical radiating plane of the typical cabinet speaker into a spherical omni-directional totally coherent radial 360 degree reinforcing non-cancelling immersive surround sound! Gain 9db with coherent redistribution of whatever previous SPL listening level! Not only do you get immersive sound, you get the same sound level with 1/8th your Amplifier's previous output! Or, looking at it another way, Eight times the loudness for the same amplifier power!'

Anyone for a Kickstarter?

 

[pozz]

There's a similar product selling in Japan from Pioneer and they have before and after graphs that show improvements, but don't understand what it means. Too lazy to run translation.
https://jpn.pioneer/ja/pcperipherals/bonnesnotes/aps-dr001/
I wonder what these are made out of since the highest tier costs around 500 bucks.

＜「DRESSING」無し＞

＜「DRESSING」有り＞

Shunyata shows similar stuff for their AC power filters. Completely meaningless graphs.

 

[amirm]

There's a similar product selling in Japan from Pioneer and they have before and after graphs that show improvements, but don't understand what it means.

It is the same idea of a simple filter. It misses the fact that every audio device that uses USB power also performs its own filtering/dc regeneration.

Their claims are even worse than Audioquest:

Of course its "supports" all formats as USB bus doesn't care about the data type. But improving sound on youtube and MP3? What an incredible claim.

 

[imagidominc]

Ok

Ok - hard to beat that one. But maybe I've got an idea for making my first million:

'New! Speaker Pure Spherical Surrounds!

'These new spherical fiber-reinforced rubberized Surrounds are perfect for enclosing your angular rectangular cabinet speakers. Inflated with pure hi-density CO2, these rubberized shrouds distribute the sound waves of the single vertical radiating plane of the typical cabinet speaker into a spherical omni-directional totally coherent radial 360 degree reinforcing non-cancelling immersive surround sound! Gain 9db with coherent redistribution of whatever previous SPL listening level! Not only do you get immersive sound, you get the same sound level with 1/8th your Amplifier's previous output! Or, looking at it another way, Eight times the loudness for the same amplifier power!

Anyone for a Kickstarter?

Shut up and take my money!

 

[Cahudson42]

Shut up and take my money!

Forget to mention that the spherical enclosure is actually a geodesic dome..Each triangular segment is an independent passive radiator..

Ok ok ..enough off topic!

 

[imagidominc]

It is the same idea of a simple filter. It misses the fact that every audio device that uses USB power also performs its own filtering/dc regeneration.

Their claims are even worse than Audioquest:
View attachment 41325

Of course its "supports" all formats as USB bus doesn't care about the data type. But improving sound on youtube and MP3? What an incredible claim.

Does Youtube even stream lossless audio?

 

[Blumlein 88]

Does Youtube even stream lossless audio?

nope

 

[Jimster480]

I remember I bought one of these when I knew nothing and I couldn't tell any difference so I returned it.
I tested it with every piece of gear I had and there was no difference...

 

[RickSanchez]

Ah, Sir is a connaisseur! May I recommend the woodlenses, to (and I quote) "Get ridd of the metallic sound..."

They come with specifications too: "Dimensions: 40 mm x 25 mm (D x h) with slight manufacturing tolerances.", nothing unscientific about that.

Your recommendation inspired me to become the sole U.S. distributor for Vibb Eaters. To the casual music aficionado these might simply appear to be small bags filled with sand -- which they most definitely are -- but true audiophiles will recognize the, ummmm .... harmonic balance or something. Just give me $38 per bag of sand please.

 

[da Choge]

I remember . . .

Jimster - I'm so jealous of your avatar! Every time I see it I get mad I didn't think of that !

- fellow fan

 

[Adam C]

i too got these years ago when i had the chord mojo, i never noticed anything from it, even tried it with various other usb connections like a ethernet usb adaptor etc, even recently tried it with my fiio k5 pro usb for jiggles, yeah nothing whoops, has anyone found a reason for its existence yet? if so do tell

 

[KxDx]

I remember I bought one of these when I knew nothing and I couldn't tell any difference so I returned it.
I tested it with every piece of gear I had and there was no difference...

I get the feeling that the real reason snake oil gear pushes ridiculously long "burn in" times is to make people miss their refund window.