A new companion for your IEMs!

PROS: hi-res wireless sound which is closer to a wired connection, modular design with 2pin and mmcx interchangeable earhook adapters (Pentaconn was included with mine, but might not be in standalone packaging), auto-impedance detection with higher output power, TWS, LDAC support, great battery life, a charging case with wired/wireless connection.

CONS: price, bulky charging case, no app support, no ANC, cost of additional adapters.

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion.

Manufacturer website: iFi. Available for sale directly or various authorized retailers, including Bloom Audio.

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Intro.

After my recent TWS reviews, I decided to continue but this time with something a bit different. I get excited when I see a well-known audiophile company announce a dedicated true wireless release, and we have seen quite a few of these lately. But what about your own collection of favorite IEMs and being able to enjoy them on the go or at the gym without bringing a DAP or a dongle while dragging your kilobuck cables along? One of the solutions is to use a wireless adapter, letting you plug in the cable into the adapter. This will allow you to cut the cord with the source, but you are still dealing with a typical 1.2m cable going to a wireless dongle. Nothing can beat the freedom of having two separate earpieces without a wire in between or no longer having to plug in the charging cable.

A more elegant and closer to true-wireless functionality solution is to have the actual TWS adapter, and a few are available. For example, I’ve tried TRN BT20 and have seen a few of its re-branded chi-fi versions, but it yielded a lot of hissing even with less sensitive IEMs and degraded the sound quality. Also, I tested iBasso CF01, elegant design, some hissing with sensitive IEMs and sound coloring, but mmcx only. Can’t speak of Shure mmcx-only adapter and never tested Fostex modular adapter which is based on old Qualcomm chipset and gets pricey with optional connectors. And, as soon as I mentioned Go Pod, I got questions about FiiO UTWS5 comparison which I never tried, though I know it comes with either 2pin or mmcx; it is not modular.

So, why am I bringing this up in the intro of my latest iFi Go Pod TWS adapter review? Because I know that people are always looking for a comparison when making a decision about what to buy. If you have a big collection of higher end IEMs, you deal with 2pin, mmcx, and Pentaconn connectors and need to cover everything. Also, it will take a lot to convince a picky audiophile with mega kilobuck IEMs, kilobuck cables, and mega kilobuck sources to use a wireless TWS adapter while ditching the cable and the DAP. In this review I will take a handful of popular higher end IEMs and compare how they sound wired vs wireless using Go Pod. So, let’s proceed.

Unboxing and Accessories.

Go Pods arrived in a compact packaging box with lots of printed info to give you in depth description of functionality, what’s included, and a detailed specification.

And speaking of included contents, I received left and right Go Pod adapters, charging case, 3 sets of left and right ear loops with 0.78mm 2pin, mmcx, and Pentaconn ear connectors, usb charging cable, quick start card, and a sticker.

T2 (IPX connectors) and A2DC (audio-technica) earloop connectors are optional and will be available separately.  I was also told by some of my readers their standalone Go Pod didn’t come with Pentaconn, so it could be optional in the final production packaging.

Design and Functionality.

People enjoy TWS earphones due to a small wireless compact size of individual earpieces, but small size means design compromises while relying on SoC chip and in some rare cases a separate dac and amp chips. But when dealing with TWS modular adapters that go behind your ear, you have more room to play with. Taking the advantage of extra space, iFi separated and optimized Bluetooth, DAC, and amplification sections to improve the sound quality. They implemented Qualcomm QCC 5100 series Bluetooth chipset with Go Pod supporting BT5.2 along with every popular codec (LDAC, LHDC/HWA, aptX Adaptive, aptX, AAC, SBC). They didn’t specify the model of the DAC, only that it uses a dedicate Cirrus Logic 32bit DAC chip. And their True Balance amplification tech supports auto impedance detection and provides a decent level of output power.

• 16Ω： ≥0.98V/60mW
• 32Ω： ≥1.96V/120mW
• 64Ω： ≥2.77V/120mW
• 300Ω：≥4.0V/53mW

The left and right sides of Go Pod are symmetric, 43.5 x 16.4 x 9.5 mm and 12g each. The pod is plastic with a generous size easy to access metal touch control area and BT led. At the bottom there is a mic and at the top there is 2pin socket where earhooks attach. As already mentioned, this modular design comes with 3 pairs of earhooks, covering 2pin, mmcx, and Pentaconn ear connectors. The removal and exchange of earhook adapters is easy, yet still secure, and the Go Pod and earhooks have a clear L/R marking. On the back, typical of TWS design which supports water- and sweat-resistant enclosure, you have wireless charging contacts, though the exact IPX rating wasn’t specified.

The charging case is big (116 x 76 x 38.5 mm and 126g), and it could fit in the pocket of your jeans, but it’s not as comfortable or compact. That is expected because we are not dealing with small compact TWS earpieces, but rather over-the-ear earhook modular adapters. The case is large enough to accommodate extra earhooks and average size IEM shells. Or if you are dealing with bigger shells, you can remove extra earhooks to make more room. The case has usb-c wired connection and also supports Qi wireless charging. It has 4 leds on the side which are visible when the case is open or closed. Also, when you lift the lid of the case, there are 2 bright leds at the top, shining down the light like on the display in the museum. These leds have a timeout so it doesn’t drain the case battery, but the effect of that display light is pretty cool.

One thing I would like to note, I like how earpieces don’t pair up with your phone/DAP until you take them out of the case. Many other TWS pair up as soon as you open the case. Since these are TWS adapters, in some cases you might be dealing with a bulky shell or bigger size eartips, preventing you from tight closure of the case. Here, you don’t have to worry that adapters will pair up with your source by itself. As long as both earhook pieces are on a charger, you don’t have to worry about closing the lid all the way, and the leds in the cover will time out and turn off so no worries about draining the battery.

And speaking of battery, each Go Pod has 180mAh battery which should give you about 7hrs of playback time on a single charge. The charging case has a massive 1500mAh battery to give you up to 35hrs of time with multiple recharges.

Now, as far as touch panel functionality goes, Go Pod covers all the necessary controls, including adjustment of the volume:

• L/R Single tap – play/pause or answer the call.
• L/R Double tap – skip forward.
• L/R Triple tap – skip back.
• R hold – volume up.
• L hold – volume down.
• L/R tap and hold – voice assistant.
• L/R tap and hold both for 2sec – enter pairing mode.
• L/R tap and hold both for 12sec – reset.

I was very happy to see implementation of double-tap to skip forward. Some manufacturers use double-tap to skip back and triple-tap to skip forward. Doing double-tap is easy, but with a triple-tap you can have a delay between taps and sometimes it registers as double tap and a single tap. IMHO, skip forward is more important than skip back because more often people listen to their playlist and skip to the next song instead of going back to the previous song or to listen to the song again.

There is no app support, so no EQ implementation that will stay with a wireless adapter regardless of the source you pair up with. But at the same time, we are dealing with an adapter rather than individual TWS, and we are going to use it with many different IEMs that require different EQ presets, if necessary. So, for me personally, app support is irrelevant here.

Also, noise canceling is missing, but again, not sure how it works when it’s just an adapter rather than a separate optimized TWS earphones.

The fit.

Page 2 – Comparison, Source Pair-up and Conclusion w/Sound Analysis.