iFiGO bar - Ultraportable DAC/preamp/Headphone amp…

I used a pair of campfire equinox IEMs and a balanced connection to review this DAC.Okay, when I got this DAC there was an issue where music would drop out while using Tidal. To start the music again, I would have to pause/unpause the song several times. It was a bummer, but I could not find any other complaints about this. Anyway, I started the return process when I realized that ifi has upgradeable firmware. The firmware upgrade process is a little ambiguous, but you download their firmware updater from their website. Updating the firmware to V2.2 completely resolved the issue!Anyway, to talk a little about the features...Pros:low noise floor: Campfire IEMS have a reputation for picking up noise like crazy. This DAC does VERY well lowering the noise floor (I can nearly hear static during soft instrumentals or vocals).small: lots of DACS are just to large to justify carrying around with you. This works great to carry with your phoneMQA: Works great with tidal, it picks up master tracks without hassle.built-in volume controls: one of the biggest problems with mac/ios and DACs is that volume control is terrible. The built-in volume buttons on this DAC eliminates the issue of over/under volume control on IOS/mac os devicescons:Charging: wish this was a simply pass through DAC, but I am willing to charge it to have built in volume controls

This is one of my favorite DACs in my collection. This dongle has an extremely powerful amp, allowing me to reach unreasonable volumes on hard-to-drive headphones. The build quality is amazing, full metal chassis with high quality 4.4mm TRRRS and 3.5mm TRS jacks. The sound quality is outstanding. It comes with 3 digital filtering modes, plus a bit-perfect mode so you can pick which one sounds best to you. The volume syncing doesn't work on my Android phone but works flawlessly on Windows. I do not own another headphone DAC/amp that is this powerful yet small enough to carry around in a pocket.

Ifi Go Bar sounds clean and detailed, fills out instruments and voice well, has plenty of punch and nicely avoids treble glare. Xbass and Xspace are both useful, bass for lower level listening and Xspace does exactly what it's supposed to do, for example, Patty Griffen's Moses from Living With Ghosts can easily sound shrill but with xspace I get much more of the room acoustics and and it's a pleasant listen. The Go Bar sound is spacious and shockingly articulate for something this small and inexpensive. I gave sound quality 4 stars but in a device this small it deserves 5. So far I have listened to Redbook ALAC and MQA from Tidal using MacBook Pro as a source and 256k AAC from my iPhone which also sounds good. The only slight irritation are the stiff cables which can make it awkward to get to the buttons, but longevity is probably the object here. In my opinion it's $330 extremely well spent.Update - 2 weeks in - The above stands, however the supplied Ifi cable for iPhone has stopped working. First I had a level drop which had me scratching my head but soon it started to glitch when the cable was moved, so I need a new cable. My first thought was just to buy another and use the replacement cable I expected they would send as a spare. Well that was stymied because they don't market that cable independently of the Go Bar. Also you just cant get a quick response from ifi. So now I am returning the Gobar in order to get a new cable. Pretty exasperating.Update May 2023: Ifi contacted me and replaced the cable within 10 days, no problems since. I must say I really appreciate this little DAC. Listening through Audirvana on my Mac, using a pair of Meze 109 Pro's the sound is so good, sometimes I have to pinch myself. While my main system ($3200 streaming DAC with headphones amp) is has better resolution, the GoBar is not that far off and I really appreciate the Xbass boost and Xspace options - no eq directly on my Wattson Madison! I have changed rating to 5 stars.

I bought the iFi GO Bar for its portability and quality components. So far, the sound is impressive with Sennheiser HD650 headphones, 3.5" S-BAL, modes MQA, PCM up to 176/192 and will be listening to more modes soon. It will support 4.4" BAL, once I purchase a headphone adapter.Positives:- High quality DAC- Very portable- USB CNegatives:- No battery backup, each time it's reconnected the volume returns to 0.- The lettering is black gloss on black matte. For me, it's hard to read unlike the pictures.

Well this thing is incredible. I was skeptical given the cost and size, but it's legit. Using headphones (beyerdynamic dt700 pro x) hooked up to my iphone, listening to things at 24 bit/96 kHz, which I've heard 1000 times before at lower quality, and hearing things I've never heard before in just about everything.The filters are a nice touch for tweaking the sound and they really make a difference to the sound. It'll also get louder than you will probably ever need, which is a nice bonus. Far, far louder than it would without the DAC. The bitrate/volume indicator LEDs are useful but not intrusive. I actually like that the markings aren't super visible, although others have complained. It just makes the thing look a bit sleeker than it would if they were more obvious.I was worried that it would eat up the battery, but it doesn't seem to be too bad on an iphone 13 pro max, it just takes the battery life from ridiculously good to just pretty great.My only minor complaint is with the case. It's a bit too small to fit the DAC and both cables comfortably. You can do it, but it's too snug and not ideal. I would love to see a *slightly* larger case with openings at the top and bottom to route the input data cable and output cable, so I could keep the DAC in the case while using it, either in my pocket or using the belt loop.

works with Sennheiser ie 900, hd490pro, and hd660s2, however not strong enough for the hd660s2