iFi GO bar - Ultraportable DAC/preamp/headphone amp

Product Information

I had to look at my previous notes on this to see if I still agree. And yes I do agree that it is a quite powerful dongle with a great and musical sound and wide soundstage, but maybe not the most detailed. On the bottom of the Go Bar is the format/sample rate LED indication, a row of LED lights that give you an easy-to-understand view of the type of file being processed. Below the sample rate LEDs are additional lights indicating the effect/filters in use. By the way, you also get a USB-C to USB-A adapter for additional flexibility. There’s also a leather travel case included in the box to protect your DAC/Amp. The case also has room to hold a connection cable. Sound This is not at the expense of the unity of the recording, you understand – the iFi isn’t prissy or analytical, it simply extracts and retains more of the minutiae of a performance than an unassisted laptop or smartphone has a prayer of doing. well-recorded, contemporary pop music often sounds excellent because it’s generally mixed and mastered extremely well.

When it comes to build quality, the iFi Go bar is solid, using a full aluminum alloy enclosure. It basically looks like a miniaturized version of iFi’s larger transportable DACs (think micro iDSD Signature), and it feels just as durable while still managing to be extremely lightweight. While the XSpace and XBass features are nice in theory, I found that XSpace did essentially nothing. XBass could be a nice feature depending on who you are.On the outside of the Go bar’s metal enclosure are its function buttons, including a two-button volume control, a switch for the previously mentioned IE Match, and a setting button for the XBass+/XSpace effects.

Despite the need for a product like this to be as small and unobtrusive as realistically possible, iFi has nevertheless had a go at Doing Some Designing. The result is a USB ‘dongle’ DAC that’s a little bigger and heavier than the norm - but also one that’s very nicely built and finished. Frankly, the only missing things are a replaceable cable and a Lightning-to-USB adapter for iOS devices. Of course, if you aren’t an Apple user, this will not impact you.It would be interesting if another company would be able to match or exceed the output power of a dongle DAC/amp in the future without resorting to a secondary internal battery. A couple of models already exist (Shanling UA5 and Earmen Colibri) that feature this “hybrid power”, but only the Colibri is able to match the output power of the Go Bar (and only in balanced mode). The GO Bar is iFi’s new answer to the portable USB DAC/Amp market. iFi is once again assertive about its new portable product, and they claim that this is the most powerful portable headphone amp of its size. iFi also claims that this is a premium USB DAC. But there’s a more premium one just below. Although unverified, (and I’ll open this up for discussion) my theory is that iFi made design choices with the Go Bar (like curiously going with the “unsexy” Cirrus Logic DAC chip and forgoing a flashy OLED screen) on what is clearly a premium priced dongle has probably has to do with allocating the maximum amount of power to the amp section. From the review, Archi has mentioned that the Cirrus Logic has low power consumption. Indeed, iFi typically uses Burr-Brown chips in their other offerings (which are all powered by internal battery) so perhaps they went with this chip alternative as they were constrained by the power draw limitations of the USB port.