What does "jitter" sound like????

Jitter is easier to hear when it is removed. I use several systems with separate DACs. Each system was vastly improved by using true 75 ohm cables and connectors. IMHO jitter boxes are a must for digital separates. In one of my systems I have two Theta Digital TLCs fiollowed by a Monarchy DIP MKII and then an Assemblage UJB-1. The sound is fantastic. One time I removed the Theta TLCs and I though that system still sounded good, until I relaized that it was missing ambience, soundstage depth... Removing jitter improves bass (more solid) the highs are better (cymbals and bells more natural). Everything improves when jitter is reduced. The music is so natural and lifelike it is hard to believe the difference a good jitter filter or 75 ohm cable can make!

On my EAD DSP-7000 MKII there is an error indicator that shows a "jitter" or error reading a digital data. You can hear the jitter from the good quality DAC coupled with bad quality CD-player or Transport. Usually when it there is an error occured from the digital output very often DAC's possibility to correct a huge amount of "trash" is limited and it goes on and on and on up to the end of CD. Even if there is a jitter reducer is present, it may not be enogh to eliminate it.
It sounds like a part of the sound bandwidth dissapears or becomes shallow and unrecognizable. It may be bass, midup or midlow -- any part that you actually cannot predict. At the same time, if I use an analogue output of CD-player without my DAC, everything goes more or less stable certainly with large overall audiable performance sacrifice.
You WILL NOT hear it if there is a good quality dedicated transport coupled with decent DAC, also if there is a bad quality player coupled with the bad quality DAC(with huge amount of oversampling) since the bad quality DACs aren't that sensitive to errors and designed to enhance the signal rather than linearly reproduce it.
The ideal DAC does not have any oversamplings.
These tests were made with Rega Planet CD-player in comparison with my dedicated Monarchy Audio DT40b transport.

marakanetz: you say "The ideal DAC does not have any oversamplings" really? from where does your information or opinion derive? -kelly

Marakentz, interesting point. But last time I remember, Rega was not a player in the digital wars. I've compared Wadia, Levinson, and Resolution Audio, here all at once. My favorite was the R.A. I have to disagree about the upsampling. It is the smoothest, most analog I've heard, atleast in my system. I heard it against the Rega, nolo contrendre.

Thanks for the info. I was just curious, because I recently hooked up my old Studer A727 CDP (their pro model from the 80s...it's very similar to the Revox B226, but beefier everything) and began using it as a transport for my EVS Millenium 2 DAC (with Cardas Lightning 15 RCA coax cable). It sounds amazing to me. It's the most balanced, realsitic sound I've had yet. There is a huge amount of low level info. I thought my old Denon DCD-2650 sounded much better than my Pioneer DV-05, and this sounds much better than the Denon (and the Denon is also built like a tank).

I was wondering about the jitter, because I've always heard that the older players have plenty. If that's true, I don't see how this player could sound so much better than my newer players. Is the Millenium DAC 2 capable of dealing with the jitter on it's own? Is that possible? I've heard that the Crystal chip lowers jitter a huge amount, and the Millenium DAC does use that chip. I thought about trying a DIP jitter reducer, but I don't see how jitter could be an issue when it sounds so much better than my other players. If there was a high amount of jitter, I would think it would sound much worse.