🔷 ifi GO blu BT Dac/Amp

Thanks so much! Look forward to more of your feedback as time comes along, glad you love it.

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Gave the Go Blu a shot with some Hd800. Was worried about the power at 300 ohm because ifi only give us the voltage for this load with 5.6V, maybe the current would be limited!? 5,6V*5,6V/300Ohm would be 105mW. Not sure if such tiny device can deliver that.

Was using the Hd800 on a sabaj A10h with 110mW at 300 Ohm. In this configuration a preamp of - 12dB was applied for a low shelf EQ.

Both sources get equally loud. Neither Bass control nor Soundstage is lacking on the Go Blu compared to the Sabaj.

From memory the xBass was stronger on the ifi xCan. Hoping for some measurements in the future.

Biggest negative point is so far is the bluetooth signal strength. I am using headphones mostly on the TV. An elegiant Bluetooth transmitter is connected to the TV via toslink. The transmitter is 5 maybe 6m away from me without any obstacles, still the Go Blu suffers from some cut outs or even worse pop sounds louder than the normal audio. The nice looking and feeling brushed metal plate seems to contribute here. If the Go Blu is lying on my chest with the plastic side up it happens less. With the ifi logo up the cut outs get worse (aptx HD codec if that makes any difference)

Maybe I need to get one of those transmitter with 2 external antenna. Didn’t try a firmware update via the gaia app yet.

Also have to buy a shorter cable now…

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I tested iFi Go Blu VS my FiiO Q3. Iem is FiiO FH3 (quite sensitive). My cable is 4.4. iFi Go Blu definitely sounds better. More dynamics. First few seconds I already know it sounds better. I am surprised considering it is bluetooth. I owned Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 before, sounds much inferior than FH3+Q3. Problem is a bit hiss, but no hiss when playing song. Maybe no hiss if 3.5 cable? It is also very small, nicely built and material. Another problem is sensitive volume knob. I am sure you will accidentally turn up/down the volume if put in pocket. For me, best choices for bluetooth are FiiO UTWS5 or iFi Go Blu. If you want best sound quality.

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So, @sebastien_chiu_iFi when can I get my hands on the xdsd gryphon? This is the dac/amp I have been waiting for.

I finally got the go blu and it has some issues for me. On top of the hiss on the Zen, it has on multiple occasions maxed the volume as I switch devices or headphones. I haven’t found the pattern that does it, but it’s not good. Dangerously not good.

I was going to do a video comparison with my Qudelix, but the issues have been problematic enough to make a/b testing difficult.

The gryphon, however, is a mini micro signature with bluetooth. I am in. How do I get it? :wink:

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ifi Zen Dac v1 or v2?
I was just thinking about getting the V2 and saw elsewhere that noise floor shouldn’t be an issue… If it’s the V2 that you have, how’s the noise floor when you plug the Teas into it?

Neither, ifi go blu from this thread. Zen is Dunu Zen and Zen Pro IEM when used on the ifi go blu.

Never heard the ifi zen stack.

Oh heck completely different gear, totally misunderstood that sorry :sweat_smile:

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Hey, @Dynamic thanks for introducing me to the Gryphon. I am
giphy
about it, it’s got everything I need and looks like a great portable device. I was getting tired of lugging my iDSD Sig everywhere.

Now to decide if I should get it immediately or wait for Mojo 2 reviews…

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The signature was a no go because of lack of Bluetooth for me. Best sounding source I have experienced though. I bought the go blu to try and get some of that magic. Didn’t really work. :frowning:

The gryphon though. So excited! Iematch almost certainly solves dunu zen issues if they exist at all (which it may not!)

To be honest, I use the entire zen stack (Stream, DAC, Can), with one of the most sensitive in-ears on the market, the Andromeda, and I didn’t hear the slightest hiss.

With the Go-Blue, the set volume of the player is taken over 1 to 1, which means that if you have turned your phone, iPad, PC … full to the max, the Go-Blue will play it back in exactly the same way. With the Go-Blue you can adjust the volume on both devices synchronously at any time, unlike on the BTR-5 or ES100, for example.

I am waiting for it too!
It’s already listed on Amazon, I guess we can order it from tomorrow (hopefully).

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Dunu Zen and Zen Pro IEMs. Hiss is loud on the go blu and makes music like piano guys unlistenable to me.

I have never heard the ifi Zen Stack. Micro signature on the other hand is fantastic.

By the way, compared to my mobile mini DAC amps, the sound of the Go-Blue is outstanding for me.
Anyone who has problems with in-ears or headphones that they perceive to be too “aggressive” in the heights can have a whole new experience with the Go-Blue.

Interestingly, it causes headphones that sound a bit “dull” to be exactly the opposite.

Magic, technical sophistication, lucky hits, whatever, he sounds really grown up and deeply relaxed on most headphones.

In the order from left to right, I prefer my mini DAC’s in terms of sound.

In my entire “mobile portfolio“, the iDSD Signature is of course the number 1, followed by the xCan and the Go-Blue.

Just like the Signature, the Gryphon has an iEM match switch, so with all the in-ears there is actually dead silence in the background :+1:

————

Oh yes, a bulls-eye in terms of color and sound:

:smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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The Qudelix 5k still beats the btr5 and go blu handily for me. The dragonfly wasn’t worth talking about. And the half dozen others I tried just lacked the authority found on the units with more power.

And the Qudelix independent volume handling may be the reason it beats the blu for me. You have so much more control and it seems to adapt to the source in some way. Not sure what magic it is doing here. And it is one of the few with noise free BT implementation with the dunu zen. (Don’t talk to me about the q5s-tc bluetooth. Terrible)

And the go blu is still doing something insane with volume when switching devices with no changes being done on the source devices. (iPhone over BT and macbook wired in this case). I ripped the Zen out of my ears so I didn’t experience hearing damage. I am afraid to do anything with them at this point. This has now happened three times. I now take the iems out, make changes to switch source or iems and put them back in when everything is playing correctly.

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Unfortunately, I don’t have dunu earphones, so I don’t have a comparison.

In my humble experience, a very high percentage of you can assume that general evaluations of only one component of a hi-fi chain will be very, very difficult to accept.

The Kombo Campfire Audio earphones and some ifi audio devices sound very, very good.

Or take a Grado RS2e, for example,

which is a red rag for the vast majority of reviewers.

With a topping DAC / amp combination, for example, I would totally agree, while a combination of Loxjie D50 and SingxerSA-1 produces a completely different sound, and a very positive one.

The Sennheiser HD 600 on my Zen combo sounds so outstanding that even a € 4000 tube / amp combo doesn’t sound any better, while the HD800s takes me into another world at this price.

Everything is probably a question of synergies and personal taste. :man_shrugging:

Oh, I agree. But at this moment, the go blu does almost nothing better than the Qudelix on my primary headphones. The timeless is the best match so far in that it’s not worse on the blu. But it’s not better either.

I will say xspace and xbass work well and is much easier to push a button than use the Qudelix parametric EQ or crossfeed functions. But the Qudelix has parametric EQ and slider based user controlled crossfeed… with the entire auto eq library.

Anyway, Qudelix is still reigning champion for me.

I haven’t tried my lsa hp-2 ultra yet. Maybe those will change the story.

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I’m curious to know where the Hip-DAC ranks for you if xCAN is the second best. I had and sold the xCAN two years ago, because I felt it’s DAC was holding it back (compared to Mojo or Zen DAC). I don’t own the Hip-DAC but would think it should sound better than the xCAN.

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Good to know

I have been pondering a Qudelix and was curious to hear some additional takes on the Blu vs Qudelix … I own the BTR5 and like it for work, but have been thinking about something else for my personal gear. Either q5k or a ZenDac, but I will get more use out of the wireless.

Maybe a bit unfair, but I’ve tried both with the Focal Clear, and the 3D + - xBassII solution is so perfect that spatial hearing and the fine resolution of the stage is significantly higher in this combination than with the Hip-Dac.

With the xCan, the highs on my Grado’s are not very aggressive and the 3-dimensional display is more spacious than on the Hip-Dac.

My KXXS’es sound very spacious in this combo.

In addition, I personally think that the xBass in the Hip-Dac is generally a bit “more coarsely” defined than in the rest of the ifi audio portfolio.

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Got it. When I had the xCAN, I was fairly new to the hobby and lacked good IEM’s & Headphones which probably resulted in my poor opinion of the xCAN’s performance.

The fingerprint magnet finish did not help it’s case either.

anybody that owns the go blu getting regular or recurring connection issues with bt ? e.g. put phone in 1 pocket and the gb in another and it loses connection?