How do you improve on a five-star performance? With more of the same, but cranking everything up to 11, if you're iFi. Its new Go Link Max DAC improves on last year's stellar Go Link USB DAC with more power, an improved sound, dual DACs and a new headphone output. Improvements all round, in other words.
Of course, to find out how it actually performs, you'll have to read our exclusive iFi Go Link Max review. But we're not ruining the surprise to say it scored another five out of five rating.
It has a number of improvements over the original. There's more power for starters – with 241mW at its disposal, it has almost five times more than a MacBook Pro. That means it should be able to drive more demanding headphones, making your music louder and clearer.
It also has a new dual DAC set-up (the original only had a single). The Dual ES9219 DAC separates the left and right channels both physically and audibly, creating a more spacious, immersive sound, according to iFi. And there's a new 4.4mm balanced headphone output to reduce distortion.
Harmonic distortion is also minimised thanks to THD Compensation, creating a purer, cleaner sound. Dynamic Range Enhancement (DRE) has also been tweaked to create a bigger difference between loud and quiet parts of a track.
Other than that, you get a silver-plated copper cable and noise-rejecting helix design, which combine to reduce digital noise. And thanks to the hardware-based volume control, sound quality isn't impacted when you adjust the volume.
The iFi Go Link Max is a little pricier than its predecessor, at £79 / $79 / AU$139. But as our review shows, it's worth every penny.
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