iFi GO bar USB-DAC, customer return

iFi GO bar, customer return, location Helsinki

Small and light USB DAC

Go, Go, GO!

The GO bar is our top-of-the-line ultraportable USB DAC/headphone amp.

Whether you are commuting, working remotely or at your desk or simply traveling for pleasure, the GO bar is the perfectly portable way to make headphones sound heavenly.

Connect to your laptop, MacBook, tablet or Smartphone or any other digital device with a USB port for Sensational sound at home, in the office, or on the move.

Accessories include a leather travel case and a Lightening to USB-C, no need to buy a Camera Connection Kit, plus a USB-C OTG cable and a USB-C to USB-A adapter.

Small. But mighty.

The DAC section of the GO bar uses a powerful 16-core XMOS micro controller to process the audio data received at the USB input. Our in-house team has programmed the XMOS firmware to optimize sound quality and ensure a perfect partnership with the GO bar's 32-bit Cirrus Logic DAC chipset.

A customized digital filter minimizes pre-echoes and ringing artifacts. Our GMT (Global Master Timing) Precision clock system ensures ultra-low jitter.

• Ultra-res PCM up to 32-bit/384kHz via USB ​
• Native playback up to DSD256
• 2x DXD
• Full MQA decoding

Suits you, sir

Four Bespoke digital filtering options:

• Bit Perfect - no digital filtering, no pre or post ringing
• Standard – Modest filtering, Modest pre and posting ringing​
• Minimum Phase - slow roll-off, minimum pre and post ringing
• Gibbs Transient Optimized – minimum filtering, no pre-ringing and minimum post ringing​

​Two analogue processing modes:

• XBass+ – an analogue bass boost to 'add back' lost bass response for more accurate reproduction of the original
• XSpace – a Holographic sound field to open up your music to give you the spaciousness of a live concert

External affairs

The GO bar's smart alloy case sports physical buttons for precise volume adjustment plus controls to select between various Sonic tuning options. A column of colored LEDs provides a Handy guide to the format and sample rate of the digital audio currently playing, and whether XBass+ and/or XSpace are engaged.

At one end is an Asynchronous USB-C input and at the other a pair of headphone outputs.

• 4.4mm fully balanced output – headphones with a balanced cable/connector can benefit from the fully balanced circuitry of the GO bar
• 3.5mm S-Balanced output – our S-Balanced tech cuts crosstalk and noise by 50% with regular single-ended headphones

Balance of power

Despite its diminutive size, the GO bar's analogue circuitry sports a balanced circuit design with symmetrical twin-channel output stage. This reduces noise and crosstalk in the signal path by fully separating the left and right channels. This is usually found in larger and more expensive amplifiers.

The circuitry is packed full of high quality discrete components and special attention has been paid to power supply filtering too, dramatically reducing signal noise introduced through the USB input.

Purity and power

The amp's design combines Sonic purity with power.

• 475mW into 32 ohms
• 7.5V input 600 ohms

​No headphone amp of such a diminutive size can match the GO bar's ability to drive Tricky headphone loads or work with a wider variety of headphones.

The GO bar also incorporates two power tuning technologies:

• iEMatch – attenuates power to suit high-sensitivity headphones and IEMs, it removes background noise and increases usable volume range
• Turbo – Ramps up the gain by 6dB to satisfy more power-hungry headphones

*Please note that the GO bar may not work with iPhones up to and including 6S when the phone battery is low (<30%).

Technical information:

• Input USB C
• Formats
  • PCM 44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/192/35
  • DSD 2.8/384kHz 2.8/3.1/5.6/6.1/11.3/12.3MHz
  • DXD 352.8/384kHz
  • MQA Full Decoder
• DAC Bit-Perfect DSD & DXD DAC by Cirrus Logic
• Headphone Output BAL 4.4mm/UnBAL 3.5mm
• Power Output
  • Balanced 475mW@32Ω; 7.2V@600Ω
  • UnBAL 300mW@32Ω; 3.8V@600Ω
• Output Impedance <1Ω (BAL/UnBAL)*
• SNR 132dBA / 108dBA (BAL/UnBAL)
• DNR 109dB(A) / 108dB(A) (BAL/UnBAL
• THD + N
  • Balanced <0.002% (6.5mW/2.0V @ 600Ω)
  • UnBAL <0.09% (100mW/1.27V @ 16Ω)
• Frequency Response 20Hz - 45kHz (-3dB)
• Power Consumption <4W max.
• Dimensions 65 x 22 x 13.2 mm (2.6" x 0.9" x 0.5”)
• Weight 28.5g (1.0oz)
• Warranty period 12 months