What does Jitter sound like?

At its worst, jitter is revealed as a hard, flat, fatiguing glare across the midrange & treble. A low-jitter clock relieves strain and adds suppleness & body. Further reductions in jitter get closer to analog-like treble delicacy, tighter bass control, and overall ease. Sounds a little like a good massage...

I would like to announce that it is in our plans to release either a CD or a range of audio files which will describe in accurate terms what Jitter is and, more importantly what it sounds like. This can be learned and experienced even on highly Jittery systems. The goal of this work is to make it audible and obvious on an average higher-quality boom-box.

Having said that, I can tell you what Jitter does NOT let you hear.

With Jitter, you can't hear the bow direction when a cellist plays even the most beautifully recorded solo works.

With jitter, you can't hear the size of a string section, you just hear the notes they are playing.

With Jitter, you can't hear the conductor breath.

With Jitter, you can't easily appreciate the conductor's work. There is something missing from the ensemble, that "leadership" which unites all those sound-emiting devices into a perceived whole, a single idea.

With Jitter, you can't hear the circle breathing when Joshua Redman plays his tenor sax.

With Jitter, brushes don't sound anywhere like brushes. It sounds like sandpaper or some other noise.

Getting rid of Jitter is like getting a new "perfect fit" pair of eyeglasses. You always thought you could see quite well, and you certainly never lost your way going home from work. But suddenly, you are surprised!

Liudas

No real answers so far....hmmm...

-Impossible to quantify unless you can tweak the actual jitter specs in the same DAC/cdp.
-If a designer has taken the road less travelled in reducing jitter to minimal levels other areas of the DAC/CDP (power supply, filtering, analog section, isolation) are highly likely to be well thought out and complementary.
Dgarretson, I assume you did this test and only changed the clock to a low jitter clock circuit, while leaving any other component unchanged. If so how did you do this? did you actually measure clock skew and spectral analysis pre/post or toss in a super clock look at the marketing specs and just go for it?

Dpac996, these are my personal observations going from stock oscillator in my SCD-1, through three generations of Audiocom Superclock up to SC4. In each modification, only the clock (or the clock power supply) were changed. I installed each clock myself & made the comparison within hours of deinstalling the previous clock. There was immediate dramatic improvement, and further improvement over up to 200 hours of break-in. If this is just "going for it" then so be it. There is enough controversy about measured jitter that I'll go with the evidence of my ears on this one.