Verdict
The iFi Go streak is not what you ’d call low-priced for a portable DAC , but it does extend a electrifying phone to accompany your music tastes when you ’re out and about , and feature an impressively comprehensive stipulation .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
iFi , it becomes progressively apparent , knows exactly what it ’s doing when it comes to turning digital audio entropy into the sort of analogue signal headphones and loudspeakers ( and capitulum , for that matter ) can sympathise .
It ’s ever - extend mountain range of DACs / phone amps are always there - or - thereabouts when hope Reviews is discussing your best options .
With the GO bar , iFi want to bring some of expertise to the dongle - shaped mutant on a topic that ’s so popular with family line who take their portable hearing seriously . But in a slightly un - iFi move , the Go bar arrives with a in good order premium Mary Leontyne Price attached . Could this be ( whisper it ) a rare iFi misreckoning ?
Price and Availability
The iFi GO legal profession is on cut-rate sale now , and in the UK it costs a not - inconsiderable £ 329 . In the United States it ’s a slimly more palatable $ 329 , while Australian customers should steel themselves to pay AU$479 .
That ’s obviously quite a lot of money for not very muchthing – and it also prices the GO ginmill beyond some passing well - regarded alternatives from the ilk of Astell & Kern , AudioQuest and , rent ’s not blank out , iFi itself . How does iFi intend to vindicate the asking price ?
Design
Having enounce the Go bar does n’t found muchthingfor the money , here ’s where I point out it ’s much more affair - y than many of its nominal challenger . At 65 x 22 x 13 mm and 29 g it ’s quite a hefty little control stick – plain it ’s no burden as part of a desktop / laptop computer audio organization , but if you want it to put a rocket up your portable hearing experience it will require some blank in your pocket .
It ’s extremely sturdily built ( from tactile admixture ) and finish , and form to be just mildly more interesting than your even trapezoidal prism . At one ending there ’s a USB - C input ( iFi provides chunkily sack , plait USB - C to USB - coulomb and USB - C to Lightning cable television service in the packaging , along with a USB - C to USB - A arranger ) , and at the other there are 3.5 mm brainsick and 4.4 millimetre balanced outputs .
Along one side of the Go stripe there are four controls , some of which are responsible for legion map . The iEMatch switch ( which toggle between 4.4 , 3.5 and off ) attenuate power to suit headphones of higher sensitivity .
The clit at the opposite end bet after the Xbass and Xspace audio presets , as well as allow you to scroll through four different digital filter . In between , there are ‘ + ’ and ‘ - ’ buttons that line up volume – and if you urge on and hold them both simultaneously you may examine the difference between normal and turbo hear style .
On the reversal of the Go taproom there are nine absolutely miniscule LED hand some indication of file type , bit - pace , volume point , and Xbass and/or Xspace deployment . Or , at least , they would if iFi had n’t take aim the noteworthy determination to label these midget light-emitting diode in shiny blackness ( against the matte black casework ) in a baptistry so modest it ’s essentially invisible .
Features
As is habitual , iFi has croak to Ithiel Town where the authoritative innards of the GO bar are occupy .
It ’s fix capacitors from ( among others ) Panasonic and TDK . It ’s importantly fettle the XMOS 16 - core processor that first takes deliverance of digital audio information via the USB - C stimulant . It ’s specified a hugely subject 32 - chip Cirrus Logic DAC chipset .
The result is a DAC that ’s capable of look at with every worthwhile file cabinet character , and can extradite native hi - res playback of PCM to 32 - bit/384kHz , DSD to 13.2MHz , DXD to 384kHz and features fullMQA decipher .
The analog circuitry is a balanced conception with a proportionate duplicate - channel yield degree – fully separating the odd and right-hand communication channel in this manner is intend to reduce noise and cross - mouth in the signal path .
essentially , the iFi GO bar may not have many feature , but what features it does have are , to all intents and purposes , uncompromised . Certainly , it seems set to bring the very good from any cost - appropriate partnering equipment , whether it ’s the author or the phone to which this dongle is sequester .
Sound Quality
Thanks to the selection of cable system iFi provides , I ’m able-bodied to test the GO bar using an Apple MacBook Pro , aniPhone 13and aGoogle Pixel 4a . And it ’s nice to be able-bodied to cover that it a ) does wonders for the sound of all three of them , and b ) is wholly logical in the oeuvre it does .
It ’s utterly agnostic , too . No matter if you prey in a impoverishment - spec MP3 file from Spotify ’s free tier up or an enormous DSD256 file from a equipment ’s inner memory , the iFi roll its sleeves up and sets about making the best of it . And when it ’s given the right stuff to work with ( anything that ’s a step on from Spotify ’s loose grade , basically ) , the influence it can bring to bear can be profound .
An 16bit/44.1kHz file cabinet of Angelica by Wet Leg enjoy across - the - circuit board gains . Low frequence are deep , more overtly textured , and better controlled at the leading and tail edge of single bank bill or hit . Improvements to the size and definition of the soundstage allows the mannered song in the midrange to sit front - and - centre , unafraid in a pocket of infinite yet nicely integrated into the carrying into action as a whole . The top of the frequency range advance a degree of confidence without acquire in any way too assertive – alternatively , it attacks with crisp determination and , again , proper controller .
A switch to a DSD64 file of Stevie Wonder ’s He ’s Misstra Know - It - All gives the GO streak even greater opportunity to assert itself . The all-embracing dynamics of the recording are handled with pledge – but it ’s the sympathetic variations in the recording , the note - by - bank bill dynamic differences in each official document , that are present entirely more prominence .
This is not at the expense of the one of the recording , you understand – the iFi is n’t squeamish or analytic , it just extracts and hold back more of the minutiae of a performance than an single-handed laptop computer or smartphone has a entreaty of doing .
Overall , though , it ’s point levels that are probably the single most impressive aspect of the work the iFi gets through . It serves up the finest , most elusive and/or most short-lived aspects of a transcription with absolute confidence and puts them in appropriate context . Even the most fleeting component of a transcription , no matter how far back on the stage or how deep in the mix , are revealed – and the result is a much richer listening experience .
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
There is n’t an facet of audio reproduction the GO ginmill does n’t ameliorate , accentuate or otherwise enhance
By the standards of USB dongle DACs , the GO bar is a braggy ‘ un
Final Thoughts
enquire not how small your dongle USB DAC is , ask what it can do for your hearing pleasure . small DACs are available , of course , as are more low-cost DACs – but none of them have the form of wakeless influence on the sound you learn the GO bar has . If you could physically adapt it ( which should n’t be too tricky unless your fashion vocabulary favours the skinniest of fits ) and it ’s not too expensive ( which is a live thoughtfulness , of form ) , it ’s thrillingly fit for purpose .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every DAC we review exhaustively over an extended period of time . We employ diligence - standard tests to liken feature of speech properly . We ’ll always tell you what we find . We never , ever , accept money to review a Cartesian product .
Find out more about how we test in ourethics policy .
FAQs
Both the standard and Anniversary versions of the Go Bar come with a bespoke Lightning to USB - C transmission line for connection to iOS devices .
Full Specs
Sustainability
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As part of this mission , whenever we review a product we send the company a series of question to help us gauge and make gossamer the encroachment the gimmick has on the environment .
We currently have n’t receive answers to the questions on this product , but will update this Sir Frederick Handley Page the mo we do . you may see a elaborate partitioning of the doubt we involve and why in oursustainability information page .
