Jitter will always exist. I'm pretty positive the Audiophilleo has recorded the lowest jitter out of these asynch devices, but we know how it sounds vs. the Off-Ramps...I don't understand these people paying $400 or whatever it is to upgrade their Audiophilleos with the battery supply when for $200 more you get an Off-Ramp 5, but whatever. I personally think the low jitter clocks Steve mentions is helpful, but I believe the way things are put together/designed/etc. is what it is all about. Steve obviously have "overbuilt" designs vs. anything else out there. This doesn't always equate to better sound, but it generally does particularly when done/implemented correctly as Steve has done. I'd put my money on the design, a little on the clocks, and that's where the Off-Ramp stands out on its own as the most superior converter available. Now if Steve's overbuilt Off-Ramps had a poorer implementation than even super cheap Hiface designs, then it would not sound as good...I'm just 99% about implementation including "good enough" parts, and 1% about use of super fancy parts...And how much that 1% can be heard is up for the listener to decide, then tweak, then tweak, then...and you get the idea;).
Steve is just the digital king of USB conversion, IMHO. I do believe all the asynch devices out there do offer a certain "sound", and one may prefer one over the Off-Ramp, even the cheapest of available options, but as I have mentioned and have heard, if the Off-Ramp could shame the Audiophilleo so badly, it must be able to shame anything else out there. This said, if another said they felt otherwise, and their Halide or U3, etc. was better, I would never say they are wrong. It's all personal experience, mine again, being, the Off-Ramp is just extraordinarily well implemented/designed, happens to use fancy crazy clocks, but it's the designer of the product, IMHO, that is bringing the sound...not the fancy clocks (though they do help with that 1%)...