TheGO baris their top-of-the-line ultraportable USB DAC/headphone amp. Whether you are commuting, working remotely or at your desk or simply travelling for pleasure, theGO baris 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 theGO baruses a powerful16-core XMOS micro controllerto process the audio data received at the USB input. Their in-house team has programmed the XMOS firmware to optimise sound quality and ensure a perfect partnership with theGO bar‘s 32-bit Cirrus Logic DAC chipset.
A customised digital filter minimises pre-echoes and ringing artefacts. TheirGMT (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 Optimised–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
TheGO bar’ssmart alloy case sports physical buttons for precise volume adjustment plus controls to select between various sonic tuning options. A column of coloured LEDs provides a handy guide to the format and sample rate of the digital audio currently playing, and whetherXBass+and/orXSpaceare 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 theGO bar
- 3.5mm S-Balanced output – TheirS-Balancedtech cuts crosstalk and noise by 50% with regular single-ended headphones.
Balance of power
Despite its diminutive size, theGO bar’sanalogue 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 into 600 ohms
​No headphone amp of such a diminutive size can match theGO bar’sability to drive tricky headphone loads or work with a wider variety of headphones.
TheGO baralso 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%).
Birthday bling!
To celebrate Their 10th anniversary, iFi havecreated an eye-catching special edition of theGO bar.
Limited to 1000 pieces, the10thAnniversary Limited Edition GO baris smothered in show stopping gold-plate and boasts:
- A copper chassis for enhanced build quality and shielding
- Enhanced power supply filtering
- A weight of 64g, 40g more than the original
Specifications…
- 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:
- Balanced: 4.4mm
- Unbalanced: 3.5mm
- 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
- Weight: 28.5 g
