Well, the day was consumed with mowing and other yard work, so did not get a chance to do any in depth comparisons between the Go Pod and BTR7. But I did a little bit on a few songs (limited to testing with my Aful Performer 5 and Samsung S22 with LDAC).
My initial impression is that the BTR7 is much warmer compared to the Go Pod, and the bass on the BTR7 is much more impactful with more sub bass. Having said that, the bass on the Go Pod is better quality, with the BTR7 just coming across a little flabby by comparison. The Go Pod seem to give a clearer sound (probably because it is not as warm). If I can figure out how to adjust the filters on the Go Pod I will see how the sound changes.
Both have decent range (>70 ft). I did not test to failure, just as far as it was convenient for me to test in my house.
There has been some discussion of the Go Pod case size. Yeah, it is probably unnecessarily big, but I suspect that even a smaller box that could accommodate the Go Pod and IEMs would not be pocketable. I think the box design will probably be a little polarizing, but to me it is fine and as I don’t foresee needing to keep this in a pocket I am fine. If I have a need for a pocketable solution, I have a lot of TWS I can carry with me in those cases.
The lack of an app for the Go Pod is… well, it is… ok, just inexcusable. This gives the BTR7 a huge advantage - even for basic things like OTA updates, gain setting, EQ, filters, etc… iFi, I really hope you will close this gap eventually.
OK, so no real conclusions so far, just observations. I like the convenience of the Go Pod, and I like the clean sound of the Go Pod. Really happy with the purchase. But I really also like the BTR7, and expect to use it whenever wired IEMs are called for.
More later