[Sebastien Chiu]

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[Sebastien Chiu]

I got my ifi go blu today. Super impressed by fast delivery by Bloom Audio. Placed order Friday night 10pm and received my ifi go blu Monday 12pm. They included a personal handwritten thank you note and packet of skittles. I am tasting the rainbow and enjoying go blu. Highly recommend bloom audio ..best part no shipping or taxes charged ..

I got to listen to ifi go blu today for few hours with various sources..

Sources - wired using balanced 4.4mm pentaconn

• One plus 8T with openSL ES output and Hi-Res output (prefer OpenSL ES) using poweramp player.DVC enabled
• Ipadpro 2020 using Flacbox player

Sources - wireless

• onplus 8T openSL ES output and Hi-Res output (prefer OpenSL ES) using poweramp player with LDAC ,APtX HD. Prefer LDAC with OpenSL ES
• iPad Pro 2020 with AAC using flacbox player
• Sony WM1Z with LDAC with sound quality priority and Aptx HD . Prefer LDAC

Here are my first impressions. Need to listen more before I can make a full judgement

• It sounds very good. It has a warm lush sound which makes it musical. Compared to lotoo paw S1 which I had before and returned which had a clinical sound with bigger soundstage but I found vocals to be flat as well as bass compared to ifi go blu and I didn’t seem to enjoy it much to reach for it every time.
• It had amazing power to drive vast range of iems and headphones.. I am using it to drive noble K10s ciem and Sony Z1R full size headphones with enough headroom. I am using just 30% volume with K10s and 50% volume with Sony Z1R when using Bluetooth. 50% with K10s and 65% with Sony Z1R when wired. It can too loud in a hurry if you choose it to be
• Xbass and xspace are guilty pleasures and love using them for some EDM tracks . The implementation is real good. I normally don’t eq at source ever but with go blu I love to experiment and it makes player very musical
• The controls are very intuitive and when using playback controls there is a slight lag but it doesn’t bother me
• The player is super tiny, well built and very lightweight. Love that small leather pouch. Perfect portable device
• wired connection gives more bass and soundstage atleast to my ears over Bluetooth. Also detail retrieval is better with wired. But nowhere close to dedicated DAP like Sony WM1z or has it smoothness . But for device that costs 1/15 the cost of WM1z it is acceptable
• No RFI with my mobile phone. I had huge issue with RFI with lotoo paw S1
• Sound signature is non fatiguing. With lotoo paw s1 I couldn’t listen for longer periods
• Bluetooth connection is very stable on all devices
• No lag on YouTube, Netflix or Azul. Both on iOS , Android and also on Mac

here are some things not that good

• There is a noticeable hiss with K10s . None of player or dacs I have used in past hiss with K10s
• The volume knob is plasticky and feels cheaper
• No smooth volume increments but stepped and those steps are huge. On poweramp one turn is 4% increase. So I control vol at source
• For a $200, they could include a USB-C to USB-C cable.they have usbA to usb c cable . But I wish they did like some competition which includes usb-c to usb-c cable with usb-c to usb-a adapter.
• The connection range is not as good as my other tws devices. This has about 80% coverage of my house vs 99% for most tws devices

Few firmware upgrade requests

• the battery status light should turn itself after few secs and if want to state of charge one click of power button gives battery health
• The dac should turn itself off say 1 min after no activity or maybe 5 min, it be awesome if tuneable with some combo clicks
• so far it is meeting my expectations on how I plan to use it and I love the sound signature..

On another note can someone recommend a good small USB-C to USB-C cable.

Thanks so much! We appreciate all the feedback - most especially on what we can do to improve the device and firmware.

As you guys keep on getting units in, please do continue dropping feedback organized like @animalsrush did!

I do but…well, unfortunately it is broken for the second time and I have no more warranty.

PM Incoming

 

[HiFlight]

I just received my Go Blue and so far, I am very pleased with the build quality and SQ when paired with my Moto G7 Power. I have to thank Bloom Audio for their superb customer service; I placed my order on Friday and received my Go today (Tuesday). I also appreciated the Thank You note and Skittles

Pairing with my phone was virtually instantaneous and the operation was quite intuitive after a quick read of the User Manual.

Initial testing via the 4.4 output with some of my lossless test files convinced me that it would be difficult if not impossible for me to tell the difference between the Go and my Hiby R5 DAP.

I found the tonal options to be subtle but yet effective. The X-bass seemed to add a bit of solidity and space to the soundstage without any bloom or any other annoying artifacts and I quite liked it. I didn't so much care for the X-Space as it seemed to make the highs a bit edgy, however I do need to try it with some of my other phones.

Overall, I am very satisfied with my purchase decision and the only thing on my want list would be to add crossfeed to the sound options via one additional click. Hopefully this could be considered in a future firmware update as was done with the Qudelix.

Edit: It seems, after use with several different sources, the reception distance is notably less than many of my other Bluetooth devices and subject to dropouts due to rather small line of sight interruptions.

 

[holsen]

Thanks for sharing those impressions. I can't wait to get my hands on one! I've been fairly happy with my UP2 for the last 18 months or so, but its time to upgrade and iFi you've persuaded me away from the UP5. Soon, so soon!

 

[holsen]

For Canucks. Headphone Bar in Vancouver will get them in 2 to 4 weeks. I wrote this morning if they were getting them, when and if preorder was available? Here's their response:
"They cannot ship into Canada yet. Should be soon, 2-4 weeks time.
We'll have lots as soon as they ship 'em. It has a battery and bluetooth, so there is no point in us taking preorders until all the importing details have been completed."
He's another great independant seller and he does ship across Canada as well. So, if you're like me and want to support local and you want a Go Blu - they're coming and aparantly in plentiful supply.

 

[keithmarsh]

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

Yay! Look forward to your thoughts!

 

[VicPickles]

Gorgeous photography! Hope you enjoy it.

 

[keithmarsh]

Some very quick first impressions(I love this thing and my FiiO BTR5 is going in the drawer).

This little player is amazing! The sound is of course very good, dynamic and musical. Exactly what I want on the go. But where the Go Blu excels is in the way some things have been implemented.

First of all the volume control is PERFECT. You can make very finite adjustments on the wheel but it is still tied to the device volume control (on IOS anyway). This means you can also use the device to step up and down in larger chucks but as you use the volume on the Go Blu to change volume the device volume will still step up/down accordingly. I hate it when the 2 volume controls are totally independent or where a device is tied to the 16 steps of the device volume. This is the best of both worlds.

The usability of the Go Blue is great too. Very fast to turn on and off. The long press is only a second or so. Controls are very intuitive (unlike the BTR5 which is pretty fiddly).
I was surprised how small it is. It’s a lot smaller than it looks in the pictures.

Device battery status is also shown on the iPhone which is a big bonus too.

I’ve yet to do in-depth listening and compassions but love what I hear so far. Will share an update once I have.

 

[HiFlight]

While I love the audio performance of the Go Blu, I am less impressed with the range of the Bluetooth reception and drops while moving about. The range is about half that of my Qudelix. I wish the quality of the Bluetooth reception was equal to the audio quality!

 

[HiFlight]

Is there a way to determine which BLUE TOOTH Codec is being processed - LDAC, APTX, AAC, etc?

A double click of the power button announces the selected codec.

 

[qsk78]

Some very quick first impressions(I love this thing and my FiiO BTR5 is going in the drawer).

Looking forward to a detail comparison with BTR5

 

[rwelles]

I assume that this uses the same FiiO Control app for iOS. The App Store shows screenshots for the BTR5. Would the Go Blu be exactly the same? I'd love to see a post with screenshots. thx!!

 

[ClieOS]

I assume that this uses the same FiiO Control app for iOS. The App Store shows screenshots for the BTR5. Would the Go Blu be exactly the same? I'd love to see a post with screenshots. thx!!

Why would an iFi product uses FiiO's app? They are two competing companies.

 

[rwelles]

My bad. Is there an iOS app for the iFi Go Blu??