Small. But mighty.
The DAC section of the GO bar uses a powerful 16-core XMOS microcontroller to process the audio data received at the USB input. iFi's 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. The 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
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 – the S-Balanced tech cuts crosstalk and noise by 50% with regular single-ended headphones.
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 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%).