Jitter reduction, best device?

Again, thanks for the responses, this has really been a pleasure and an education. I recently acquired the MSB Gold dac and yesterday I flipped the upsampling switch. It made a big difference in reducing the the edginess of the sound.Prior to the msb I just used an M-Audio Audiophile usb dac connected to my computor. It sounded significantly inferior to my cd player so I hardly used it. Now the computor, with the msb, upsampled, in the chain sounds far better than the cd player. At this point Im wondering how big a jump in sound quality an anti-jitter device will make. If the new more expensive devices will make a substantial improvement I'll patiently save my nickels and dimes (as well as my marriage!)and get one in the hopefully not to distant future. If nearly the same improvement can be gotten with a used older device for less than half the price of the latest available I'll be impatient and get one now. If, on the other hand, adding another device in the chain won't make that big a difference why add an anti-jitter device? Obviously I'm a newbie at this and have done just enough reading to be dangerous.....but hey, you gotta start somewhere......Thanks in advance for any more replies that happen here.

Further to Mapman's question, which was not answered. How does one know if jitter is a problem? "Digitalis"? Does that mean the shrill (un-tubelike) sound of many CDs?
Mike19

Mmarvin19,

I've read a good bit on line about this and it is still clear as mud to me how to diagnose a jitter problem as opposed to other forms of unpleasant things in sound reproduction.

I think I understand what jitter is and how some kinds can be offensive and others not, similar to various distortions found in vinyl playback. In both cases, the only thing I find I can trust is my ears to tell me whether things are going right or not.

I would consider buying a jitter reduction device if I knew how to conclusively diagnose a jitter issue, but I don't.

I have found different DACs can make a world of difference in regards to good digital sound but I have no clue about how much jitter is introduced by any particular device, though I do believe all devices, even those with the best clocking mechanisms introduce some.

After all, nothing is perfect. In the end, all I know for sure is to trust what I hear.

Well, I describe it as hard edged, as oppose to warm like, but shrill works.

mapman
i disagree on your theory that your ears can tell if you have jitter or not. all i can tell you is if you hook up the jitter device between the source component and the dac, you will hear a big improvement, something you won't hear until you hear hear the difference. just like going from a mid-fi system to a hi-fi system. you might think how can music sound any better than this mid-fi system. you won't know until you hear a system that produces music that you haven't heard before. also, i'm not talking about a shrill sound becoming warm or rough edges. a jitter device is not going to make a bad system great. my den system consists of a dk design integrated amp, dvp9000es, adcom gda-700 dac, totem speakers and subwoofer, and a connection from my music server. a decent system for a den. when i placed a cheap audio alchemy jitter device (get my feet wet with jitter devices), my sub was way out of adjustment (more powerful and way too loud), and the whole soundstage opened up. when you get a better jitter device, it opens up the sound even more. bottom line, i got as much improvement from the jitter device as i did placing the dac in the system.