iFi GO Link 2 Portable USB DAC and Headphone Amplifier Announced with ESS Sabre DAC and DSD256 Support

The headphone stage also reflects a more nuanced approach than typical single-ended outputs in this class. iFi’s S-Balanced topology is not about brute-force power, but about noise management and spatial integrity. By borrowing concepts from balanced circuit design and adapting them to a standard 3.5 mm output, the architecture prioritizes channel separation and blacker backgrounds, which in practice benefits complex mixes and densely layered recordings. This is particularly relevant for modern portable listening, where sensitive in-ear monitors can easily expose grounding noise and channel bleed from inadequately designed dongles.

Taken as a whole, GO link 2 positions itself less as a “spec delivery system” and more as a forward-compatible digital interface for an evolving hi-res ecosystem. While today’s streaming platforms rarely exploit the upper limits of contemporary DACs, the device is engineered with enough headroom and control to avoid becoming the bottleneck as source quality improves. In that sense, it functions as a minimalist but considered bridge between mass-market digital sources and headphones that deserve more than the generic audio stages built into phones and laptops.