Dossier — iFi GO link Max
The brochure speaks; the silicon answers. What follows is what each has said.
+ Vendor page › +Claims breakdown
| Claim | Bucket | Witnessed | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCM 384 | Silent | Alt 1, Subslot 2 — 16-bit PCM. Sample Rates Supported (kHz): 44.1 48 88.2 96 176.4 192 352.8 384Alt 2, Subslot 3 — 24-bit PCM. Sample Rates Supported (kHz): 44.1 48 88.2 96 176.4 192 352.8 384Alt 3, Subslot 4 — 32-bit PCM. Sample Rates Supported (kHz): 44.1 48 88.2 96 176.4 192 352.8 384Alt 4, Subslot 4 — Type-1 RAW 1-bit DSD. Sample Rates Supported (kHz): 44.1 48 88.2 96 176.4 192 352.8 384 (DSD64 to DSD256) | — Silent: claims unwitnessable by descriptor |
| DSD256 | DSD | Alt 4, Subslot 4 — Type-1 RAW 1-bit DSD. Sample Rates Supported (kHz): 44.1 48 88.2 96 176.4 192 352.8 384 (DSD64 to DSD256) | ✓ Match |
Remarks
iFi names the GO link Max's PCM ceiling by rate alone — 384 kHz, with no bit depth printed anywhere on the product page. An incomplete claim earns no verdict, so the PCM line is left unscored; the descriptor supplies what the copy withholds — native 16-, 24-, and 32-bit containers, each carrying the full rate ladder from 44.1 to 384 kHz on a high-speed USB Audio Class 2 interface.
On DSD the claim is whole: DSD256, and the descriptor witnesses exactly that — a raw DSD alt provisioned from DSD64 through DSD256. The dual ES9219 reach DSD256 and stop there.
Where iFi's copy lists DSD256 without naming its transport, the descriptor settles the question: a raw DSD alt, carried natively — not DSD-over-PCM.
On keying: the USB identity rides a bridge-maker's vendor block rather than a mark unique to iFi, and the host announced it only as "iFi USB Audio SE" — a family string, not a model name. The product identity is resolved from the public hardware record, where this exact vendor and product pair is reported as the GO link Max across a dozen independent machines. The descriptor declared the bridge; the record named the rest.
+ See the full Concordance +