iFi GO Link Max overview: a USB-C DAC that is the most effective methods to get reasonably priced hi-res audio out of your smartphone we have ever discovered

iFi GO Link Max: Two-minute overview

iFi has taken the confirmed GO Link formulation and, by including a balanced 4.4mm headphone output and deleting MQA compatibility (which is, let’s not fake in any other case, no loss), produced the GO Link Max.

It’s just a little bigger than its extra reasonably priced sibling – however that’s not the identical as being giant. And its relative bulk is mitigated no finish by stylish steel casework. Only the uncovered braided cable that connects the primary physique of the DAC to the block which plugs into your supply gadget, provides us any trigger for concern. And even then, its vulnerability is theoretical relatively than precise.

Like nearly each iFi product TechRadar has examined, the GO Link Max performs nicely and provides important worth for cash. No matter if it’s related to a smartphone or a laptop computer, with a half-decent pair of headphones on the different finish this DAC is able to placing a rocket up the sound high quality you’d in any other case be handled to. In each significant respect, it improves on the unassisted sound of your laptop or telephone – and never in a delicate method. Is it one of many greatest moveable DACs accessible for this cash? You most likely know the reply to that…

iFi GO Link Max overview: Price and launch date

• Released November 20, 2024
• Priced $79 / £79 / AU$139

The November 2024-release iFi GO Link Max USB DAC is on sale now, and within the United Kingdom it prices not more than £79. In the United States it can set you again $79, whereas in Australia it sells for $139.

The world’s removed from in need of reasonably priced USB DACs, after all (not least from iFi itself – see the admittedly pricier $499 / £449 / AU$769 iFi GO Bar Kensei or the five-star iFi hip-dac 3 at $199 / £199 / AU$349 for starters). But nonetheless, the mixture of value and specification seems alluring right here…

iFi GO Link Max overview: Features

• DSD256 and 32bit/384kHz PCM assist
• Twin ESS Sabre ES9219 DACs
• Unbalanced 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm outputs

Of course, the iFi GO Link Max is one thing of a one-trick pony – and so consequently it has only a few options. Those options it has, although, are designed to get that one job accomplished in some fashion.

So at one finish of the braided cable there’s just a little block with a USB-C connector on the top. iFi offers each lightning and USB-A adapters to suit it, so the GO Link Max ought to be appropriate with any smartphone or laptop computer you care to say. At the opposite finish of the cable there’s a bigger block with unbalanced 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm outputs at its finish, and on the within is every little thing required to show digital audio data into analogue as successfully as potential.

iFi has deployed twin ESS Sabre ES9219 DAC chipsets to get the job accomplished – which suggests the GO Link Max can take care of audio information as much as DSD256 and PCM 32bit/384kHz decision. And fittingly for an organization that’s by no means been afraid of a great acronym or two, iFi has fitted this little gadget with ‘THDC’ (complete harmonic distortion compensation) know-how to maintain harmonic distortion to a minimal, and ‘DRE’ (dynamic vary enhancement, sadly, and nothing to do with the celebrated hip-hop producer) which – hey! – desires to extend the dynamic distinction between the quietest and the loudest moments in your music.

This association, says iFi, ends in a USB DAC that may twist out 100mW of energy from the unbalanced output and over 240mW from the balanced various. Which is so much by any USB DAC requirements, and may enable the GO Link Max to drive just about any acceptable headphones with out issues.

Features rating: 5 / 5

iFi GO Link Max overview: Sound high quality

• Greater dynamism and improved ranges of element
• More constructive, punchier sound
• Across-the-board enhancements

Let’s face it: solely probably the most optimistic clients purchase a brand new laptop computer or smartphone anticipating sonic excellence. These units are too noisy (in electrical phrases) and too feature-heavy for audio high quality to be something apart from an afterthought. If you need nice sound when you’re out and about or at your desk, a devoted music participant would possibly appear to be the way in which ahead. iFi, although, disagrees – and the way in which this GO Link Max could make your laptop computer or smartphone sound demonstrates that so long as the crucial stuff is finished correctly, these may be simply as viable a supply of music as the costliest stand-along digital audio participant.

The distinction in high quality between plugging a pair of headphones instantly into the headphone socket of an Apple MacBook Pro, say, and plugging the identical headphones into the GO Link Max having related it through its USB-C is de facto exceptional. The positive aspects are removed from delicate, and they’re wide-ranging. In all honesty, the copy is of a wholly completely different normal.

Take mid-range decision, as an illustration. A 16bit/44.1kHz file of Lisa O’Neill’s Old Note is extra detailed, extra direct, carries higher harmonic variation and is, within the last evaluation, merely extra communicative and eloquent when heard through the iFi USB DAC. Daft Punk’s Get Lucky as a 24bit/48kHz FLAC file demonstrates higher low-frequency depth and texture, elevated dynamic headroom, and an altogether extra assured method with rhythm and tempo administration. And Lobbo by Vieux Farka Touré et Khruangbin as a 24bit/96kHz file has higher chunk and presence on the high of the frequency vary, in addition to elevated substance.

The frequency vary hangs collectively extra easily and confidently, and the tonal stability is improved too. Soundstaging is extra open, higher outlined and way more successfully managed than it’s while you depart the pc to take care of issues. There’s simply no facet of music copy that the iFi GO Link Pro doesn’t take care of way more successfully than an costly, high-end laptop computer laptop.

Sound high quality: 5 / 5

iFi GO Link Max overview: Design

• Braided connecting cable
• 150 x 15 x 10mm (HxWxD)
• 14.5g

Just as with the ‘options’ part, the GO Link DAC is a practical, no-frills gadget the place ‘design’ is anxious. This is a product that must be as small, gentle and moveable as is realistically potential, and that’s precisely what iFi has delivered.

The steel casework of the 2 sections of the DAC appear and feel good, and provides a touch of the premium to what’s a essentially discreet gadget. There’s a single LED on the primary physique of the GO Link Max, which lights up in one among a choice of colors to point the dimensions of the digital audio file it’s coping with – although I can’t assist considering it’s a little bit of a disgrace that the identical color (inexperienced) signifies PCM all the way in which as much as 96kHz. A little bit visible affirmation that 96kHz is a considerably greater decision than 44.1kHz is perhaps good…

The solely facet of the design that’s in any method problematic is the braided cable that joins the 2 sections of the DAC, and even then, this can be a theoretical concern relatively than something tangible. iFi reckons the braiding helps protect the cable from exterior interference, and I’ve no cause to suppose that’s not the case – it simply feels a bit weak for a product that’s doubtless to spend so much of its life in a pocket or a bag.

Design rating: 4.5 / 5

iFi GO Link Max Review: Usability and setup

• Plug into your smartphone or laptop computer
• Plug in your headphones
• Away you go!

“It’s not rocket science” is, I believe, too weak an outline for a way easy the iFi GO Link Max is to make use of. Plugging the USB-C finish into your laptop computer or smartphone at one finish, and your headphones in on the different, doesn’t require in-depth directions – and for those who can’t get this gadget up and operating in mere seconds, I don’t suppose any quantity of directions are doubtless to assist.

Usability and setup rating: 5 / 5

iFi GO Link Max overview: Value

• You merely cannot argue with the worth for cash right here
• Does what it does in superb fashion

The iFi GO Link Max represents unarguable worth for cash. The latent fragility of the cable apart, it’s robustly made, correctly completed, gentle and moveable – and it does what it does in superb fashion. If you need to maximise your moveable and/or desktop audio expertise with out spending an arm and a leg, you actually can’t go mistaken right here.

Value rating: 5 / 5

Should I purchase the iFi GO Link Max?

Buy it if…

Don’t purchase it if…

iFi GO Link Max overview: Also contemplate

If you possibly can dwell with out the 4.4mmm balanced output, the even smaller, even lighter iFi GO Link USB DAC makes a complete lot of sense – particularly because it’s usefully cheaper than the already-quite-affordable GO Link Max. If you need to free your self for the ubiquity of iFi, although, it’s value contemplating FiiO’s KA13 – by iFi requirements its comparatively cumbersome, nevertheless it get the job accomplished in superb fashion.

How I examined the iFi GO Link Max

• Qobuz and Tidal; Android smartphone and Apple MacBook with Colibri software program
• Sennheiser IEMs; Austrian Audio over-ears

I plugged the iFi GO Link Max right into a Samsung Galaxy S21 smartphone utilizing the USB-C connection, and into an Apple MacBook Pro utilizing the identical socket. I additionally related it to an Apple iPhone 14 Pro through the Lightning adapter. Each gadget is loaded with Qobuz and TIDAL music streaming service apps, and the laptop computer additionally options Colibri software program to get round Apple’s inexplicable disdain for actually hi-res digital information. Headphones included Sennheiser IE900 (related utilizing the 4.4mm socket) and Austrian Audio Hi-X20 (utilizing the three.5mm equal), and music got here from each period and each style. I listened to the GO Link Max for nicely over a working week this manner – and it was no type of hardship.

• First reviewed: December 2024
• Read TechRadar’s opinions assure