Ifi GO Link MAX Review – Top Value
I received Ifi’s 79€ GO Link MAX for assessment which, as its name clearly says, is supposed to be an “expanded” version of Ifi’s GO Link, which is still regularly available for the lower price of 59€. I’m curious…
In this Article
At-a-glance Card
| PROs | CONs |
| Outstanding sound quality | No MQA support (does anybody care anymore?) |
| Native 4.4mm balanced output | Third party music player app recommended for smoother volume control |
| High res support (DSD 256 / PCM 384) | |
| Output power for most drivers out there | |
| Still modest source power requirements | |
| Support for iPhones, latest and less recent models alike | |
| Very low price | |
| Phenomenal value |
I am not writing these articles to help manufacturers promote their products, even less I’m expecting or even accepting compensation when I do. I’m writing exclusively to share my fun – and sometimes my disappointment – about gear that I happen to buy, borrow or somehow receive for audition.
Another crucial fact to note is that I have very sided and circumscribed musical tastes: I almost exclusively listen to jazz, and even more particularly to the strains of post bop, modal, hard bop and avantgarde which developed from the late ’50ies to the late ’70ies. In audio-related terms this implies that I mostly listen to musical situations featuring small or even very small groups playing acoustic instruments, on not big stages.
One of the first direct consequences of the above is that you should not expect me to provide broad information about how a certain product fares with many different musical genres. Oppositely, you should always keep in mind that – different gear treating digital and analog sound in different ways – my evaluations may not, in full or in part, be applicable to your preferred musical genre.
Another consequence is that I build my digital library by painstakingly cherry-pick editions offering the least possible compression and pumped loudness, and the most extended dynamic range. This alone, by the way, makes common music streaming services pretty much useless for me, as they offer almost exclusively the polar opposite. And, again by the way, quite a few of the editions in my library are monoaural.
Additionally: my library includes a significant number of unedited, very high sample rate re-digitisations of vinyl or open-reel tape editions, either dating back to the original day or more recently reissued under specialised labels e.g. Blue Note Tone Poet, Music Matters, Esoteric Jp, Analogue Productions, Impulse! Originals, and such. Oppositely, I could ever find an extremely small number of audible (for my preferences) SACD editions.
For my direct and conclusive experience, virtually none of the above is available on the most common streaming platforms, which makes their offering of high sampling material apriori pointless for my purposes. Quite simply, then, I don’t use streaming services as I find them not up to my requested quality.
My source gear is on its turn selected to grant very extended bandwidth, high reconstruction proweness, uncolored amping. Which in particularly means that TWS and any other form of lossless-based wireless gear is apriori off my selection panel.
And finally, my preferred drivers (ear or headphones) are first and foremost supposed to feature solid note-body timbre, and an as magically centered compromise between fine detail, articulated texturing and microdynamics as their designers can possibly achieve.
In terms of presentation, for IEMs I prefer one in the shape of a DF curve, with some very moderate extra pushup in the midbass. Extra sub-bass enhancement is totally optional, and solely welcome if seriously well controlled. Last octave treble is also welcome from whomever is really able to turn that into further spatial drawing upgrade, all others please abstain.
Features and description
Let me put it straight: the product name is true to the situation. GO Link Max is indeed “the same as GO Link, with something added on top”. Therefore I won’t bother you, nor myself, with a 4 page descriptive piece which would inevitably be largely equivalent to the one I already wrote about the earlier model, and you can find here.
What I’ll focus on here below is the differences between the two models, and whether GO Link MAX is indeed superseding its less expensive sibling, which earned a well deserved spot on our Wall of Excellence.
Here is first of all a quick specs comparison table:
| GO Link | GO Link Max | |
| CHIPSET | 1 x ESS Sabre ES9219MQ/Q | 2 x ESS Sabre ES9219 |
| DIMENSIONS | 135 x 12.6 x 7.6 mm | 150 x 15 x 10 mm |
| DNR | ≥122dB(A) @ 0dBFS | 125dBA via 3.5mm 130dBA via 4.4mm |
| FORMATS SUPPORTED | DSD 256 DXD 384kHz PCM 384kHz MQA | DSD256 DXD 384kHz PCM 384kHz |
| HEADPHONE JACK TYPE | 3.5mm S-Balanced | 3.5mm S-Balanced 4.4mm Balanced |
| INPUT | USB-C | USB-C |
| NET WEIGHT | 11g | 14.5g |
| OUTPUT IMPEDANCE | <0.4Ω | 0.7Ω via 3.5mm 0.35Ω via 4.4mm |
| POWER CONSUMPTION | No Signal ~0.2W Max Signal ~1W | No Signal ~0.6W Max Signal ~3.2W |
| RMS OUTPUT POWER | 70mW @ 32Ω; 2V/14mW @ 300Ω | 100mW @ 32Ω; 2V @ 300Ω via 3.5mm 241mW @ 32Ω; 4V @ 300Ω via 4.4mm |
| SNR | ≥125dBA (2.05V) | 125dBA via 3.5mm 130dBA via 4.4mm |
| THD+N | ≤0.004% (1.27V @ 32Ω) | ≤0.0015% @ 32Ω 1.27V via 3.5mm ≤0.0016% @ 32Ω 2.4V via 4.4mm |
Very simply put:
- GO Link MAX adds a 4.4mm balanced output port to the 3.5 S-balanced one
- Through such 4.4 port GO Link Max provides circa 3X the output power vs single ended one
- Correspondingly, GO Link MAX requires roughly 3X the power from the source it connects to
- Unlike its older sibling, GO Link MAX does not offer MQA rendering.
- Most if not all other aspects the same, including the so convenient very small form factor, the equal need for some sort of music player software to better manage volume levels, and the equal support for file formats and sampling resolutions.
Is GO Link MAX’s higher output power significant?
GO Link MAX has a much easier and/or better time driving overear phones such Shure SRH-1840, and it does a decent job even on HD800 – both cases where the original GO Link falls short.
On the IEM front all reasonably easy to drive IEMs are already properly supported by the original GO Link, yet none of the “usual suspects” (Final E5000 or B1, nor heavy planars like RCA CL2) are adequately biased even by the GO Link MAX.
So in the end: GO Link MAX’s higher driving power is nice to have but it’s not vital at all bar quite special cases.
Is GO Link MAX’s higher source power consumption significant?
Reading the specs we see GO Link MAX’s maximum power drain is 3.2W corresponding to circa 640mA.
I don’t use a phone for music, and the “maximum” value won’t of course be the same as the “typical” value let’s do some educated guess here. My particular phone has a 4500mAh battery, and at the end of my business day it always has at least 40% battery left.
Which means that it would be able to support at least 3 additional hours of continued full power (!!) GO Link MAX operations, and of course much more than that if we more realistically consider way less than full power consumption during most of the device ‘s actual play time.
Also: in the case of a dongle to be used on a phone we can probably disregard that idle power consumption value as I tend to assume that the typical use case involves plugging the dongle off the phone when not actually playing music.
All summed up, I think that for its typical uses GO Link MAX’s higher power needs won’t be a significant negative point in comparison to its earlier sibling.
Does GO Link MAX sound better than GO Link ?
Unsurprisingly, the comparison of sound quality performances off the single ended outputs of either device is very flat: GO Link MAX is a fair bit more powerful, but not seriously cleaner.
As in most cases on such low budget devices (and sadly, on so many not so low budget ones too – but let’s not derail here) the Balanced architecture corresponds to an obvious improvement on noise floor reduction and dynamics compared to “standard” single ended design. So we all are expecting “that” to be the real improvement on GO Link MAX.
In the particular case of most IFI devices, however, the comparison is to be run not only with the single ended scheme, but vs IFI’s own S-balanced scheme, which is built into so many of their devices including, of course, both GO Link and GO Link MAX.
I already covered such iFi proprietary technology multiple times on my articles regarding other iFi sources (here, here and here). You can alternatively refer to iFi’s own white paper, here.
In a nutshell, S-Balanced is a smart way to route the analog signal inside the device such to realise a sort of (give me some rope here) “fake” balanced scheme even with a single amp stage (vs two independent, parallel ones as they are used within “real” balanced schemes).
S-Balanced offers the same benefits of a true Balanced scheme in terms of lower noise and distortion, and none of its drawbacks (to know why… RTFWP!) when it is connected to a balanced-wired (TRRS) load.
In addition to that, unlike a true Balanced scheme, S-Balanced is fully backwards compatible with single-ended (TRS) terminated loads. And (!) single-ended (TRS) terminated drivers plugged onto an S-Balanced port will get “some” improved sound quality (50% reduced crosstalk) compared to the same dac-amp circuitry organised following the “ordinary” single-ended flow.
Going back to today’s case: if you use a single ended driver (with a TRRS 3.5mm termination, or adapter) GO Link MAX will sound more powerful but just very marginally if at all better compared to GO Link.
Similarly, if you use a balanced ended driver you will hear a modestly better sound when you plug it onto GO Link MAX’s 4.4 port vs when you plug it into GO Link’s S-balanced port via an appropriate TRRS 3.5mm adapter.
Summarising: GO Link MAX’s balanced option represents a not too big sound quality improvement vs GO Link’s S-balanced option – which is by the way why, if you own onw, you are definitely supposed a GO Link exclusively with a TRRS 3.5mm terminated driver at all times.
Those who however – for whatever reason – cannot / don’t want to exploit GO Link’s S-balanced option, and have access to balanced terminated drivers, will hear a more significant improvement on GO Link MAX vs original GO Link.
Lastly, the price
GO Link MAX stays very inexpensive at €79 in Europe, vs the €59 for the GO Link (which is still available for purchase as I am writing this piece)
Considerations & conclusions
If GO Link was – rectius is – a remarkable device, by all means GO Link MAX is one too, and for the same rationales.
You will hardly find another equally well sounding dongle supporting balanced output and DSD up to 256, biasing high impedance headphones with agility, and offering such a broad source compatibility, all and more, for less than 80 Euros.
If you use your phone as your main streaming source then GO Link MAX delivers huge quality and so many benefits for such a low price that it is not a mere recommendation: it’s a no-brainer.
On the flip side, if you absolutely want MQA support, you already own an original GO Link, and/or you are so tight with your budget that even 20€ do make a difference, then you should get (or keep) the less expensive sibling – even more so if you already own an appropriate TRRS 3.5mm adapter to make your existing drivers shine through the S-balanced option it offers
You can get GO Link MAX from countless sources, including Ifi’s own web site. As always, the link is not sponsored.
Our generic standard disclaimer.
