Audioquest Jitterbug

I was amazed when I put mine on, I already have a USBregen on the Hugo end and wasn't expecting much but it made things less digital and just improved the sound overall.  For the price I'm tempted to put another one on an unused USB port and see if that makes a difference too.

Dayjay - glad it worked.. for such an amazing DAC - I do find the USB interface on the Hugo surprisingly mediocre - to me tending to sound lacking in life and vibrancy - and it looks like you have found a possible remedy!!

Simon

Hi Simon,  a bit of advice if I can semi-hijack this thread.   I might be going Chord Hugo or 2Qute in the future so to short cut the planning can you tell me your S/PDIF BNC cable preference from NDX to Chord & if you've tried a few what is/is there a difference.   

dayjay posted:

I was amazed when I put mine on, I already have a USBregen on the Hugo end and wasn't expecting much but it made things less digital and just improved the sound overall.  For the price I'm tempted to put another one on an unused USB port and see if that makes a difference too.

IME it does. Just improves clarity a little (but worthwhile) bit more.

Mike - sorry - just seen your query - I use a BNC to phono SPDIF cable made by Gotham AG of Switzerland. I have tried and own several cables - including the Naim DC1 - but this Gotham cable seems to sound good with the Hugo, it is relatively low cost, light weight, seemingly good quality BNC plug  and you can order it in a short length so I can have a neat short cable loop from the NDX to Hugo.

Thnks Simon,  I'm probably going 2Qute & thats BNC-BNC,  but nice to know the Gotham does a good job ........   

I have my second Jitterbug going at the moment. The first one I sold since I didn't hear any difference at all after plugging it in. It's very easy to compare to bare USB output since you can just plug it in and it works. Quick to switch on and off. Now I bought second one to try out since I did some other changes to my setup. It's really difficult to find difference in the sound quality but it might have a small cleaning effect to the sound. Bass is ever so slightly tighter with Jitterbug on. Anyway, very small difference in my system. I do use a very good USB bridge with dedicated PSU though. 

My guess is it works best where the USB bus is poorer quality, and perhaps the DAC too. Certainly with my bog-standard 2011 iMac and Dragonfly there is a significant difference, but obviously it's not the very best set-up.

Solid Air posted:

My guess is it works best where the USB bus is poorer quality, and perhaps the DAC too. Certainly with my bog-standard 2011 iMac and Dragonfly there is a significant difference, but obviously it's not the very best set-up.

I'm using mine on one of those crappy Hugos and can clearly hear an improvement.  Everything just a little less digital and a little more analogue, not night and day but certainly more than 40 quid worth of improvement.  My Mac Mini is the latest version

Have had mine for about two weeks.  Use it with an Audioquest usb extender cable at the MacBook Pro > Radio Shack 10 ft powered USB cable > Wadia 151PowerDAC Mini.  It met my upgrade budget for the year.  It has been implied here several times  that I don't have the golden ears some ascribe to themselves so won't bother with any further comments there.  But I'm keeping  the AQ J/bug.

I use my jitterbug between home system (plugged into front usb on n272)  and office (notebook usb-ifi nano dsd-headphones). In both cases it makes nice diff. But more in the office. Soundstage grows, all gets more 'real'. Good stuff!

Mike-B posted:

Thnks Simon,  I'm probably going 2Qute & thats BNC-BNC,  but nice to know the Gotham does a good job ........   

Mike, before you go for the 2Qute, I would recommend trying Hugo as well. I initially went 2Qute and found it's output just a little bit too high via SN2 which produced a slightly fatiguing sound in my set up. Don't get me wrong, it is excellent, but I found that Hugo gave everything that the 2Qute did although with a more luscious, velvety, immersive sound that you can listen to for hours and hours.

Thanks for the tip Mayor West,  I have that added to the check list - size/shape, functions (don't need it all) , dynamic range & SQ on the home system (not dealers).  I intend to test both & other brands,  but it'll not be until mid June at the earliest.   

No problem, Mike. Ill be interested to know how you get on! :-) 

Reading the Jitterbug write-ups, it's says that it can make improvements even if it is plugged into an unused USB port, rather than inline.  I am just wondering if anyone has tried it this way?

The reason I ask is that I may use one on my QNAP which serves my Qute.

Thanks

Maxwell posted:

Reading the Jitterbug write-ups, it's says that it can make improvements even if it is plugged into an unused USB port, rather than inline.  I am just wondering if anyone has tried it this way?

The reason I ask is that I may use one on my QNAP which serves my Qute.

Thanks

See Andrews response above

I believe - might be wrong - that the idea is to use a Jitterbug inline in USB connections, and that there is some, lesser benefit in putting a Jitterbug into any unused USB slots on the same bus. Presumably your Qute is connected via ethernet, rather than by the USB bus, so I doubt putting a Jitterbug into any unused USB slots would have any effect. 

Mayor West posted:

Mike-B posted:

Thnks Simon,  I'm probably going 2Qute & thats BNC-BNC,  but nice to know the Gotham does a good job ........   

Mike, before you go for the 2Qute, I would recommend trying Hugo as well. I initially went 2Qute and found it's output just a little bit too high via SN2 which produced a slightly fatiguing sound in my set up. Don't get me wrong, it is excellent, but I found that Hugo gave everything that the 2Qute did although with a more luscious, velvety, immersive sound that you can listen to for hours and hours.

Agreed - Having had both, the Hugo is a better dac.

G