Last night, I did some comparison listening for roughly 2 hours with my Bryston BDP-2 digital player. My Bryston BDP-2 unit has the latest official software/firmware installed and the new/upgraded sound card (Integrated Audio Device [IAD]).
I connected my BDP-2 to my Devialet 200 via both AES/EBU & USB and switched back-and-forth between the two connections to compare sound quality. This in no way was a very scientific experiment, just a personal experiment since I happened to be home alone yesterday evening & took advantage of the situation. My AES/EBU cable is the Atlas Mavros digital cable ($485) and my USB cable is the AudioQuest Carbon ($170).
With these cables in place, I gave a slight edge to the AES/EBU connection. It provided just a small amount of additional detail as compared to the USB connection which I expected given the price difference and built quality/material between the two.
However (to my surprise), when I introduced the AudioQuest JitterBug USB Data & Power Noise Filter ($50) to the AudioQuest Carbon USB cable, it was a different story. With the introduction of the JitterBug, I could no longer hear a different between the two connections as the JitterBug provided a slightly quieter background allowing more detail to be heard.
This was my personal experience with my own equipment in my own living room. However, when my wife came home, I repeated the tests for her and she came to the same conclusions I did.
So far, I'm really impressed with the AudioQuest JitterBug and wanted to pass this along (note: I have no affiliation with AudioQuest)!
