This tiny, affordable device can seriously upgrade your phone or laptop's audio

The new iFi GO Link Max packs a balanced output and lots of power into an ultra-portable, affordable DAC dongle

iFi GO Link Max DAC
(Image credit: iFi)
Carrie Marshall
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Quick Summary

iFi's new GO Link Max takes the popular headphone DAC, adds a balanced output and massively increases the power.

Its double-DAC system promises big improvements in your phone or laptop's audio.

If you're looking for a high quality phone DAC to power a set of high-end headphones, iFi could have just the DAC you're looking for. The new iFi GO Link Max builds on the highly rated iFi GO Link and adds some worthwhile improvements.

The GO Link Max may be small, but it puts out a lot of power – up to 241mW, which iFi says is nearly five times the output of a standard MacBook Pro. That means the DAC is capable of powering more demanding high-end headphones than your laptop or phone can normally support.

The iFi GO Link Max also has a 4.4 balanced connection, which promises better separation of the stereo channels as well as reduced noise and interference.

The iFi GO Link Max supports Hi-Res audio formats, including PCM 384kHz and DSD 256, and it has dual ES9219 DACs with Time Domain Jitter Elimination to reduce audio errors and deliver more detail.

There's advanced THD compensation to reduce harmonic distortion, and the optional dynamic range enhancement delivers a 6dB boost to deliver additional impact.

The additional power and higher spec means a slightly higher price than the orginal GO Link, but at £79 / $79 / AU$139 the GO Link Max still very much in the affordable bracket. If you're serious about sound, it isn't much cash for the audio upgrade you're getting.

And it should be quite the upgrade. Reviewing the GO Link, our colleagues at What Hi-Fi? gave it the full five stars.

They praised its ability to make even the most familiar recordings sound new: "There's no doubt that the GO Link is adding a layer of spice to proceedings," it stated.

Carrie Marshall
Carrie Marshall

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).

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