Bass definition, speed, and impact is enhanced.Much better layering and separation of sound.The Jitterbug sounds a little artificial in comparison. Tone and timbre are much more accurate.The Jitterbug sounds congested in comparison. The soundscape is much more open and holographic.(It’s probably worth mentioning that the JCAT didn’t sound too great when stacked with the tX-USBultra, but did great in lieu of it). The beauty of this device is that it’s also passive. It’s also much larger and almost five times the cost. In short, the JCAT USB Isolator is leaps and bounds better than the Jitterbug. However, for its small footprint, price, and ease of use…no complaints. I’ve found that it also “over-smooths” dynamics and textures in some systems. It also improves the tone and timbre of the recordings. It does a great job of getting rid of the digital glare and harshness of PC audio. I recommend the Audioquest Jitterbug as a bare minimum. It’s expensive and most will prefer not to have to deal with an extra power supply/cables. The best one I’ve heard so far (by a long shot) is the SOtM tX-USBultra. When hooking up a USB DAC to your server, a USB conditioner/reclocker is imperative. Save yourself the trouble and just stick to JPLAYStreamer. Either that or a heavy veil depending on JPLAY settings. There’s a nasty haze, flat and thin tone, and non-existent textures. However, using the ASIO: JPLAY playback device from Foobar2000 sounded terrible. I didn’t see a JPLAY output option in JRiver. Just a few clicks and copy/pasting and you’re done. I would add that you’ll have to restart the minimserver after step #3 (installing minimstreamer). Setup was simpler than I expected (Took less than 10 minutes). You’re also advised to tick ‘optimize for SinglePC’ option in the installer if you’re not going to use dual PC mode (configuration with 2 PCs). JPLAY recommends choosing Alternative Intel CPU version in the installer if you’re using Intel CPU. Basically a client-server in the same box. It is recommended that you use JPLAYStreamer, which allows you to play local files via a local server. Setting up Foobar2000 and JRiver is straightforward.
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