iFi GO Hyperlink Max consider: a USB-C DAC that’s among the many greatest strategies to get cheap hi-res audio out of your smartphone we’ve ever found
iFi GO Hyperlink Max: Two-minute consider
iFi has taken the confirmed GO Hyperlink formulation and, by together with a balanced 4.4mm headphone output and deleting MQA compatibility (which is, let’s not faux in some other case, no loss), produced the GO Hyperlink Max.
It’s a bit larger than its additional cheap sibling – nonetheless that’s not the equivalent as being big. And its relative bulk is mitigated no end by fashionable metal casework. Solely the uncovered braided cable that connects the first physique of the DAC to the block which plugs into your provide system, supplies us any set off for concern. And even then, its vulnerability is theoretical pretty than exact.
Like practically every iFi product TechRadar has examined, the GO Hyperlink Max performs properly and supplies vital value for money. No matter if it’s linked to a smartphone or a laptop computer pc, with a half-decent pair of headphones on the totally different end this DAC is ready to inserting a rocket up the sound prime quality you’d in some other case be dealt with to. In every vital respect, it improves on the unassisted sound of your laptop computer or cellphone – and by no means in a fragile method. Is it among the many greatest moveable DACs obtainable for this money? You probably know the reply to that…
iFi GO Hyperlink Max consider: Value and launch date
- Launched November 20, 2024
- Priced $79 / £79 / AU$139
The November 2024-release iFi GO Hyperlink Max USB DAC is on sale now, and within the UK it costs no more than £79. Within the USA it’s going to set you once more $79, whereas in Australia it sells for $139.
The world’s faraway from in want of cheap USB DACs, actually (not least from iFi itself – see the admittedly pricier $499 / £449 / AU$769 iFi GO Bar Kensei or the five-star iFi hip-dac 3 at $199 / £199 / AU$349 for starters). Nonetheless nonetheless, the combo of worth and specification appears alluring proper right here…
iFi GO Hyperlink Max consider: Choices
- DSD256 and 32bit/384kHz PCM assist
- Twin ESS Sabre ES9219 DACs
- Unbalanced 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm outputs
In spite of everything, the iFi GO Hyperlink Max is one factor of a one-trick pony – and so consequently it has only some choices. These choices it has, though, are designed to get that one job achieved in some vogue.
So at one end of the braided cable there’s a bit block with a USB-C connector on the tip. iFi gives every lightning and USB-A adapters to go well with it, so the GO Hyperlink Max must be appropriate with any smartphone or laptop computer pc you care to say. On the totally different end of the cable there’s a much bigger block with unbalanced 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm outputs at its end, and on the inside is the whole thing required to point out digital audio information into analogue as efficiently as potential.
iFi has deployed twin ESS Sabre ES9219 DAC chipsets to get the job achieved – which suggests the GO Hyperlink Max can address audio info as a lot as DSD256 and PCM 32bit/384kHz resolution. And fittingly for an organization that’s on no account been afraid of an outstanding acronym or two, iFi has fitted this little system with ‘THDC’ (entire harmonic distortion compensation) experience to keep up harmonic distortion to a minimal, and ‘DRE’ (dynamic range enhancement, sadly, and nothing to do with the celebrated hip-hop producer) which – hey! – wants to increase the dynamic distinction between the quietest and the loudest moments in your music.
This affiliation, says iFi, results in a USB DAC that will twist out 100mW of vitality from the unbalanced output and over 240mW from the balanced numerous. Which is masses by any USB DAC necessities, and will allow the GO Hyperlink Max to drive nearly any relevant headphones with out points.
Choices score: 5 / 5
iFi GO Hyperlink Max consider: Sound prime quality
- Bigger dynamism and improved ranges of ingredient
- Further optimistic, punchier sound
- All through-the-board enhancements
Let’s face it: solely basically probably the most optimistic shoppers buy a model new laptop computer pc or smartphone anticipating sonic excellence. These devices are too noisy (in electrical phrases) and too feature-heavy for audio prime quality to be one thing other than an afterthought. Should you want good sound whenever you’re out and about or at your desk, a faithful music participant may seem like the way in which during which forward. iFi, though, disagrees – and the way in which during which this GO Hyperlink Max may make your laptop computer pc or smartphone sound demonstrates that as long as the important stuff is accomplished appropriately, these might be merely as viable a provide of music as the most expensive stand-along digital audio participant.
The excellence in prime quality between plugging a pair of headphones straight into the headphone socket of an Apple MacBook Skilled, say, and plugging the equivalent headphones into the GO Hyperlink Max having linked it by means of its USB-C is principally distinctive. The constructive components are faraway from delicate, and so they’re wide-ranging. In all honesty, the duplicate is of a totally fully totally different regular.
Take mid-range resolution, for instance. A 16bit/44.1kHz file of Lisa O’Neill’s Outdated Observe is additional detailed, additional direct, carries increased harmonic variation and is, inside the closing analysis, merely additional communicative and eloquent when heard by means of the iFi USB DAC. Daft Punk’s Get Lucky as a 24bit/48kHz FLAC file demonstrates increased low-frequency depth and texture, elevated dynamic headroom, and an altogether additional assured method with rhythm and tempo administration. And Lobbo by Vieux Farka Touré et Khruangbin as a 24bit/96kHz file has increased chew and presence on the prime of the frequency range, along with elevated substance.
The frequency range hangs collectively additional simply and confidently, and the tonal steadiness is improved too. Soundstaging is additional open, increased outlined and rather more efficiently managed than it is everytime you depart the laptop to deal with points. There’s merely no aspect of music duplicate that the iFi GO Hyperlink Skilled doesn’t address rather more efficiently than an pricey, high-end laptop computer pc laptop computer.
Sound prime quality: 5 / 5
iFi GO Hyperlink Max consider: Design
- Braided connecting cable
- 150 x 15 x 10mm (HxWxD)
- 14.5g
Merely as with the ‘choices’ half, the GO Hyperlink DAC is a sensible, no-frills system the place ‘design’ is apprehensive. This is usually a product that should be as small, gentle and moveable as is realistically potential, and that’s exactly what iFi has delivered.
The metal casework of the two sections of the DAC look and feel good, and supplies a contact of the premium to what’s a basically discreet system. There’s a single LED on the first physique of the GO Hyperlink Max, which lights up in definitely certainly one of a set of colours to level the size of the digital audio file it’s dealing with – though I can’t help pondering it’s just a little little bit of a shame that the equivalent coloration (inexperienced) signifies PCM all the way in which during which as a lot as 96kHz. Barely seen affirmation that 96kHz is a significantly bigger resolution than 44.1kHz could also be good…
The one aspect of the design that’s in any method problematic is the braided cable that joins the two sections of the DAC, and even then, it’s a theoretical concern pretty than one thing tangible. iFi reckons the braiding helps defend the cable from exterior interference, and I’ve no trigger to suppose that’s not the case – it merely feels a bit inclined for a product that’s probably to spend a lot of its life in a pocket or a bag.
Design score: 4.5 / 5
iFi GO Hyperlink Max Analysis: Usability and setup
- Plug into your smartphone or laptop computer pc
- Plug in your headphones
- Away you go!
“It’s not rocket science” is, I consider, too weak a top level view for the way in which simple the iFi GO Hyperlink Max is to utilize. Plugging the USB-C end into your laptop computer pc or smartphone at one end, and your headphones in on the totally different, doesn’t require in-depth instructions – and will you’ll be able to’t get this method up and working in mere seconds, I don’t suppose any amount of instructions are probably to help.
Usability and setup score: 5 / 5
iFi GO Hyperlink Max consider: Value
- You merely can not argue with the price for money proper right here
- Does what it does in very good vogue
The iFi GO Hyperlink Max represents unarguable value for money. The latent fragility of the cable aside, it’s robustly made, appropriately accomplished, gentle and moveable – and it does what it does in very good vogue. Should you want to maximise your moveable and/or desktop audio experience with out spending an arm and a leg, you truly can’t go incorrect proper right here.
Value score: 5 / 5
Must I buy the iFi GO Hyperlink Max?
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Choices | The perks listed below are all you need for hi-res audio | 5/5 |
| Design | Small (potential) cable worry aside, it’s a wise little issue | 4.5/5 |
| Sound prime quality | Detailed, dynamically agile, and punchier this time | 5/5 |
| Value | It’s unimaginable to argue with what you get for the money | 5/5 |
Buy it if…
Don’t purchase it if…
iFi GO Hyperlink Max consider: Moreover take note of
When you’ll be able to stick with out the 4.4mmm balanced output, the even smaller, even lighter iFi GO Hyperlink USB DAC makes a whole lot of sense – notably as a result of it’s usefully cheaper than the already-quite-affordable GO Hyperlink Max. Should you want to free your self for the ubiquity of iFi, though, it’s worth considering FiiO’s KA13 – by iFi necessities its comparatively cumbersome, but it surely absolutely get the job achieved in very good vogue.
How I examined the iFi GO Hyperlink Max
- Qobuz and Tidal; Android smartphone and Apple MacBook with Colibri software program program
- Sennheiser IEMs; Austrian Audio over-ears
I plugged the iFi GO Hyperlink Max proper right into a Samsung Galaxy S21 smartphone using the USB-C connection, and into an Apple MacBook Skilled using the equivalent socket. I moreover linked it to an Apple iPhone 14 Skilled by means of the Lightning adapter. Each system is loaded with Qobuz and TIDAL music streaming service apps, and the laptop computer pc moreover choices Colibri software program program to get spherical Apple’s inexplicable disdain for actually hi-res digital info. Headphones included Sennheiser IE900 (linked using the 4.4mm socket) and Austrian Audio Hi-X20 (using the three.5mm equal), and music bought right here from every interval and every fashion. I listened to the GO Hyperlink Max for properly over a working week this vogue – and it was no kind of hardship.
