of iFi’s offerings, the Go Blu and Go Bar, contain their XBass and XSpace features (basically bass boost and Soundstage enhancer) while the Go Link, S9 Pro, DragonFly Red, BTR3K, and BTR5 do not have any extras. Some will be turned off by Chord’s quirky design language, the unintuitive menu system, and the relatively high price. I recently did my research and bought my first headphone dongle (from shenzenaudio.com); I selected the Moondrop Dawn 4.4mm Balanced 4Vrms output dual CS43131 (there is a slightly cheaper 3.5mm 2V unbalanced out device too, but I haven't tested that version). This is not at the expense of the unity of the recording, you understand – the iFi isn’t prissy or analytical, it simply extracts and retains more of the minutiae of a performance than an unassisted laptop or smartphone has a prayer of doing. I felt like I was hearing everything there was to hear through the iFi DAC, while I felt I was missing a lot of the audibility and directional cues when listening to the Cobalt. The Go bar also had a remarkable amount of headroom over the Audioquest DAC. The Wrap Up

Finally, on the bottom face there’s a raw of 9 little holes corresponding to as many LEDs, with engravings already hinting about those being dedicated to signaling which PCM sample rate is being played, or if DSD is being received, whether MQA is being detected and finally wheter XSpace and/or XBass+ are activated.Certainly my favorite is the Gold Bar, but I did not like the lower output from a phone, nor the attraction to fingerprints it has. But as far as SQ, it certainly was the highest of these. The Go Bar is a close second, just watch the boomyness on that one and somewhat softer presentation. Both the Gold and Go bar sounds so much more natural and smooth in the highs and the mids that is certainly more pleasant that the other two.

Despite the need for a product like this to be as small and unobtrusive as realistically possible, iFi has nevertheless had a go at Doing Some Designing. The result is a USB ‘dongle’ DAC that’s a little bigger and heavier than the norm - but also one that’s very nicely built and finished. Frankly, the only missing things are a replaceable cable and a Lightning-to-USB adapter for iOS devices. Of course, if you aren’t an Apple user, this will not impact you.The sound had a cookie cutter feel to it. Part A meets Spec B, without any real promise of nuance. The very top may be a bit too sharp if your headphones run bright. I noticed it with HD280, and that is very much a "not bright" headphone sub-8Khz.

GO Bar also has a +6dB High Gain mode. Unlike what happens e.g. on the GO Blu where gain selection follows an automatic system, on GO Bar it’s the user who has to manually set the device on High or Low Gain mode. For the most part, the Go Bar doesn't do anything wrong. It's quite neutral sounding to my ears, with no real emphasis in any part of the spectrum, unless you enable one of the digital processing effects. XBass+ gives a big boost to the bass region, with what I believe is a +10dB down-sloping curve through the bass region. As my FifteenReaderstm know, the above is no big concern to me as I don’t use my general purpose smartphone as a transport, rather a separate dedicated device, paired to a dedicated small powerbank and wired with an appropriate custom cable. Nevertheless my personal use case is quite evidently not so common, so the average user looking into adopting GO Bar as a classic “dongle” to be paired to his main phone while commuting should keep its power absorbtion needs in due count. They have IEM Match, but on both headphones and IEM’s, I preferred just the straight out as the IEM Match felt kind of limiting and less dynamic, maybe even a bit muted.When plugging TRRS plugs – the port delivers full “balanced-ended” output to balanced-cabled drivers, resulting in quite apparently cleaner and more dynamic sound. The analogue circuitry is a balanced design with a symmetrical twin-channel output stage – fully separating the left and right channels in this manner is intended to reduce noise and cross-talk in the signal path. When changing volume via +/- buttons the LEDs on GO Bar’s bottom faceplate briefly light up to give a visual representation of the volume level. Buttons & Features​The iFi Go Bar has a couple features that are controlled with 3 side buttons. First off, you can control volume with the two volume controls, and the third button switches between X-Space, X-Bass+, both of them on, or both of them off. The default is off. From high sensitivity/low impedance fussy IEMs, all the way to low sensitivity/high impedance beasts, the M15 can handle everything with ease. The build is solid, there’s sufficient power on tap, and it does not get noticeably warm with usage.

The sound is the flattest and least obtrusive, but also very flat and front row. The gray haze never goes away, no matter if single or dual DAC or filter chosen. I found linear sharp/fast the best (no surprise there). The physical design is clean and simple, with buttons on the side and a crisp OLED display on the front. An included case offers protection from scratches and fingerprints, as the shiny, larger body is prone to both. My main application for XSpace are those original jazz masters from the 60ies where mixing tended to be executed by hard panning each instrument on a single channel only: crossfeed is almost magical in those cases. Compared with the Apple dongle and using my Solaris, the UA5 is much better: it sounds more natural, softer, and less brittle. It has a lively, energetic quality, thanks in part to the treble emphasis, although because the bass is also emphasized (but not overdone, as with the Apple dongle). The overall tuning is reasonably balanced. String and brass instruments have better tonality than from the Apple dongle, but not the complexity or refinement I heard from the iFi dongles. The UA5 could do with a bit more richness and warmth.Shanling UA5: Out of the four dongles, the UA5 is my least favorite sounding wise, but my favorite on I/O and smart features. I really like the knob for volume control and to control different settings on the UA5. It is smart to have a battery setting (since UA5 has a built in battery) where you can have the UA5 run only via its battery (and not taking power from your iPhone. If you had other Shanling devices you can control DAC output to Single/Dual, Gain, SPDIF out and screen settings. Using the same measurement system, the idle current is the same as the old SMSL iDEA dongle (higher than the AQ Dragonflies), and about double the current at maximum output into a low-impedance load. The difference of course is that the iFi can do >2Vrms into 20Ω without clipping (I think the distortion is <0.1% right at 2Vrms). At the end of the day I guess its single relevant downside is the price – which is not low at all. A few other downsides are also there, but none of those seriously shadows its positives.