iFiGO blu – Portable Bluetooth 5.1 DAC/Headphone Amplifier with aptX Adaptive, LDAC, and 4.4mm & 3.5mm Headphone Outputs - Hi-Res Audio

I have owned this device for about a year now after previously owning other similar offerings from Fiio, iFi, and EarStudio. The first six months were spent paired with an iPhone and the second six months with a Samsung Z Flip 5 (more on that later).Fiio makes great sounding products but I wound up going with iFi again for this purchase for a few reasons: 1) There's a warmth to the sound from their devices that I always find myself coming back to, 2) they center their entire product design around a "no screen + analog controls" philosophy that on paper looks like a disadvantage compared to most competitors and their OLED displays but in reality it's a leg up (a screen means firmware is required and that means the device can brick) and 3) I find their X-Bass add-on to be a perfect feature for my own personal tastes.The bonus 4th item I would add to the above list after using this device for a while is perhaps it's unsung killer feature: unlike a lot of the "dongle with screens" everyone is throwing out there to get something out there in what is becoming a very hot product niche, iFi's Go Blu was clearly designed with a purpose in mind and that is to be the smallest, easiest to use, format agnostic and best sounding portable BLUETOOTH device out there. Yes, this will function over USB-C as a DAC and will sound great, but the bread and butter here is being able to work with any number of devices across any number of bluetooth codecs seamlessly. On this front I can say it succeeds in spades where all others have failed.I primarily use this between a desktop Windows machine with a Fiio BTR3 Pro bluetooth transmitter/receiver and my Samsung phone. It works with both flawlessly, but because of Apple's draconian insistence on using only their own proprietary bluetooth codec that prioritizes connection and latency over quality, you can't really flex the full specs of the Go Blu when paired with an iPhone unless you are connected to the phone as a dongle with a cable. Otherwise you're stuck at 16/44 in the SBC codec. Getting an Android phone that can match the GoBlu's 24/96 LDAC capabilities is where this really starts to shine. Pair it with high quality, lossless source material and only then do you realize just how high fidelity of a listening device this actually is.Thankfully, however, it is extremely forgiving on sources of lesser quality. It's not that 16/44 over SBC or even AptX sounds BAD, it's just that lossless at 24/96 over LDAC just sounds better in every way. I mainly listen using a pair of Fiio FD5's with their upgraded LC-RD Pro cable using the 4.4mm balanced plug. In all honesty even on direct A/B testing of the same song at the same time, I genuinely have a hard time hearing much of a difference between the 3.5mm unbalanced and 4.4mm balanced plugs featured on the GoBlu with regard to the Fiio earbuds.When using my Sennheiser HD660-S however, the story completely changes and the 4.4mm option adds a nice extra amount of sub-bass that is missing on the unbalanced option. And yes, it definitely has enough power to make those cans shine.Regardless of what I am listening with, I really love the X-Bass feature as it adds JUST enough bass to get a true sub-bass/woofer feeling with my FD5's and to add needed depth to the 660S's. It's usually the perfect amount of added bass when switching from listening to rock over to house music or hip hop. Never muddies things, either.Lastly, I will say that I absolutely love the volume knob iFi has come up with once I figured out the proper orientation to make it easy to use as it was intended: as a very precise, small-stepped way to increase the volume. It's great that this device always takes over the volume of whatever your BT source is and adds all the steps of precision as your primary volume control.I have spent a long, long time trying to piece together the ideal, portable, high quality listening setup for the way I listen to music today and I must say, I can't imagine anything else coming closer to checking basically every box as the GoBlu and Fiio FD5 pairing. Whether it's the Burr Brown circuitry or the insistence on bypassing any local Snapdragon on-chip Bluetooth and using their own internals even on low grade bluetooth codecs, there's just something about the iFi sound that is satisfying across the board for any type of music. It's also flawless in at the connecting/reconnecting game no matter how many devices you throw at it.There's a lot of great sounding options at this price point that you really can't go wrong with from purely a sound quality perspective. Where I think the iFi outshines all others is with its purposeful design toward doing one thing flawlessly and ensuring the longevity of the device by limiting exposure to firmware upgrades and the pitfalls of a screen-based device OS.Can't recommend this thing highly enough.

Incredibly easy to use. Battery life is decent. Enough power for HD6XX and Arya Stealth. XBass does an awesome of job of giving more low end without altering the overall sound too much. The sound quality is fantastic. I think iFi’s sound signature is nice. It’s slightly warmer and softer (less harsh) compared to a lot of other small DACs.I tried 3 other portable Bluetooth DACs before settling on this one. The iFi not only had the best specs, it easily has the best user experience.

Good sound, needed additional dongle because it was too loud for my IEMs. Great battery life, works as advertised

Excellent. I wanted a nice amp/dac to connect my iPhone 14 to my zmf atrium. I tried a chord mojo 2 but being tethered to my iPhone was annoying. The mojo 2 is heavy, the available mojo to iPhone cables are really short so if the mojo gets bumped off a table it takes your phone crashing down with it. The GO blu is great. The Bluetooth pairs easily and stays solidly connected across my house. The audio quality is excellent for the price point. It drives my atriums with no distortion. Charges quickly, even with the original Apple low current, 5v charger. Tiny in size so incredibly portable. Couldn’t be happier.

En mi opinión el sonido está bien pero lo malo es que no duró mucho apenas tenía 5 meses de averlo comprado y el dispositivo se descompuso no se porque pero se abrió la carcasa por un lado y no se puede Serrar y ya no agarra el 100% de carga solo agarra un 60% y rápido se descarga es una lastima ya que el sonido para lo que vale estaba bien

Update 7.26.22I didn't buy the original Go Blu through Amazon and the first review was written on the one I bought through another vendor. I bought a second unit, delivered April 7 through Amazon, and it has developed the same issues as the first one. In both cases, the time it will work starts deteriorating and a gap starts to form in the housing of the unit. The worse it gets, the wider the gap. The first unit went from 12-14 hours use down to about 10 minutes. It became a $200 paperweight. I bought the second unit through Amazon and after 3.5 months it is also starting to go bad. As you see in the photo, the first unit has a wider gap and is totally useless now. The second unit started going bad a few days ago but as I have been through this before I called Amazon and they took care of it. Lesson learned: always buy Amazon!I am sending the second unit back to ifi finally just to see if they will actually fix or replace the unit. I will report back here either way. Regardless, there are significant quality control issues with this unit that need to be resolved and anyone shelling out $200 should know about this ahead of time. Once is a fluke. Twice is the beginning of a pattern.Original review:I don't believe in blended reviews so I am giving this 5 stars overall and then breaking it down.Performance: 5 Stars I used this unit with HiFi Man Sundara headphones and the setup is a musical dream. I can honestly say it is the most I've enjoyed music since college with the benefit of being able to go anywhere via bluetooth. If you aren't aware of the Sundara cans I can't recommend them highly enough.Support: 0 Stars The Go Blu unit I'm reviewiong was bought through headphones.com; it went bad in less than 8 weeks. As it was outside the 30 days, headphones.com said to start a ticket with ifi, which I did. However, I was shocked to find out that I was expected to pay shipping and handling for their defective unit. When I incredulously asked them if they didn't even pay shipping to have it repaired they actually had the gall to say "they would be taking a loss if they provided shipping". Hey, what about MY loss? At best, I would be losing time, energy, the cost of shipping and handling (and in my case 20 minutes each way to the post office), with no guarantee that they would even fix the unit. After all, that might cut into their profit margin! I can honestly say that I have never had a vendor refuse to pay shipping back to the company for a defective unit within warranty.I believe this is a balanced review. Electronics are a crapshoot so it is vital to have good support if something goes wrong, right? Now that you have the whole picture you can decide if this is for you. Are you feeling lucky?