r/iFiaudio

Hi. I'm considering this combo for my next audio purchase, but have not seen any info about it. I know Edition XV is a little harder to drive than Edition XS for example, and i am wondering if the Zen Can 3 can drive the XV to their full potential.

Thanks!

A week ago, my unit blasted full-volume white noise into my headphones and rendered my tinnitus significantly worse.

Disclaimer (and long rant incoming) : I've been living with relatively "low intensity" tinnitus for 11 years now. Took around 6 months after I noticed it for the first time to fully accept and make peace with it, but it's been perfectly fine since then.

Whatever the fuck happened with the GO Link 2 made it worse. I know it did because I'm basically back at square one (well, almost) after 11 years: the acceptance phase. I suddenly started noticing this shit again when I get to bed and try to sleep. It's far from being as bothersome and hopeless as the first time, but the feeling is there.

Anyways, back to the topic.

I was listening to music on my Galaxy A56 through Samsung Music, with my Focal Hadenys plugged into the GO Link 2. Nothing unusual, normal listening volume.

I pressed the next track button and, for whatever fucking reason, instead of music I got what sounded like full-volume white noise straight into my headphones. It was LOUD. Like genuinely, absurdly loud. I ripped the headphones off immediately, so we're talking about maybe 2 seconds of exposure at most.

I don't know what exactly caused it and I'm not going to pretend I do. Could be the GO Link itself, its firmware (it is updated to the last one) some fucked up interaction with Android/Samsung Music/USB audio, whatever. What I do know is that this is the only piece of hardware in that chain that has ever done anything remotely like this.

I use the Hadenys basically every day on my PC through a MOTU M2. Never had a single issue with them.

I've also used this exact same A56 with three different pairs of Bluetooth earbuds/headphones, as well as USB-C earphones directly from the phone. Again, never had anything even remotely similar happen.

Again, I'm not talking about a little pop between tracks or some occasional crackling here. It basically dumped a wall of noise into my ears at what sounded like maximum output. The weird part is that the volume slider on the phone didn't even max out. It stayed exactly where it was, which makes me pretty convinced this wasn't Samsung Music randomly deciding to crank the volume to 100%.

After this happened I started looking around online and, to my surprise, found other people reporting very similar shit with iFi GO Link devices. People describing extremely loud static/distorted noise, the output suddenly going to maximum volume, loud noise when playback starts or resumes, and even one person getting a massive noise spike specifically when changing tracks in Tidal and saying it worsened their tinnitus afterwards.

There are reports involving Samsung phones, Pixels and other Android devices. Some people apparently reproduced it with more than one GO Link, while the same headphones/DAC setup behaved normally on PCs or other devices.

So I'm really not the first person to have this thing scare the living shit out of them.

Maybe my unit is defective. Maybe it's some obscure compatibility issue. Maybe it's a firmware problem. I honestly don't care at this point because none of those explanations makes this acceptable.

There should be some kind of failsafe preventing this from ever happening. Period.

I had made peace with my tinnitus but now I'm lying in bed noticing it again because a fucking USB DAC decided to blast noise into my ears for two seconds.

F**k you IFI for selling defective products like this. There is absolutely no way I'm putting headphones connected to this thing anywhere near my ears again.

If you've had anything similar happen with a GO Link 2 (or any other product really), please comment.

Thank you for reading.

I have had this DAC/amp for many years and have mainly used a pair of sennheiser hd599 for most of that time but have occasionally used many different sets of IEM's with them on occasion.

Almost every one of my IEM's I have used on this DAC has had the left ear bud go down to about 50% volume suddenly, not always when using it with the DAC. Once while on a plane and once with another DAC/AMP and a final time while using it with the DAC. I thought it might have just been my left ear being weird and causing preasure issues that mess with the IEMs until today when my HD599's (which I have used exclusively on the Zen DAC) has just fallen to the same fate. In the middle of playing a game and suddenly the left channel goes silent.

In all cases I have tested with another DAC/amp to confirm damage to the IEM/headphone. I now have to deal with the fact that I will have to replace hundreds of dollars worth of gear, likely with much lower quality, as I won't be able to afford to drop $500AUD on an amp and a pair of headphones.

Hi, I'm using Google Translate. I bought the Zen Air DAC 2, and only the July 14, 2026 update and the 2023 update are available.

My question is, do I have to update to the 2023 version and then to the 2026 version, or just the latest 2026 update?

PD. My question is based on the possibility that version 2026 might be an add-on to version 2023... and that I have to install it.