iFi Audio’s latest portable DAC and headphone amp wants to be the last box you carry between your laptop, your phone and your good headphones. The iDSD GR 2 made its debut at HIGH END Vienna 2026 and went on sale on July 6, 2026, priced at US$529 / £529 / €549.
At the heart of it sits a Burr-Brown PCM1795 converter wired into a fully balanced circuit. That symmetrical layout isn’t just spec-sheet decoration — balanced designs keep noise and channel crosstalk in check, which matters a great deal when you’re feeding demanding headphones from something small enough to slip into a jacket pocket.
And this thing can drive them. iFi quotes 1,513mW RMS into 32 ohms, a figure that reads more like a desktop amplifier than a travel-friendly gadget. Whether you’ve got sensitive in-ears or a stubborn pair of planars, there should be plenty of headroom before things run out of steam.
Format support is generous, too. The GR 2 handles PCM up to 768kHz and DSD512, covering essentially every hi-res file you’re likely to throw at it. There’s also JVCKENWOOD’s K2HD processing on board, iFi’s nod to upscaling lower-resolution material toward a more open, high-res-style presentation.
Where the GR 2 really flexes its portable credentials is wireless. Bluetooth 5.4 comes with both aptX Lossless and LDAC, the two codecs most likely to keep streamed audio from feeling compressed and lifeless. It means you can go cabled at your desk and wireless on the move without switching devices.
Operation is handled through a color OLED touchscreen, a welcome step up from the cryptic button combinations that plague a lot of pocket DACs. A quick tap to change inputs, filters or gain settings beats memorizing a sequence of long-presses.
iFi is pitching the GR 2 squarely at listeners who want one device that works everywhere:
- DAC: Burr-Brown PCM1795
- Output: 1,513mW RMS into 32 ohms, fully balanced circuit
- File support: PCM up to 768kHz, DSD512
- Wireless: Bluetooth 5.4 with aptX Lossless and LDAC
- Processing: JVCKENWOOD K2HD
- Controls: color OLED touchscreen
Add the connectivity iFi is promising for home and on-the-go use, and the GR 2 looks like a serious attempt to collapse a whole hi-fi shelf into a single palm-sized unit. At US$529 it isn’t an impulse buy, but for anyone chasing genuine headphone grunt without lugging a desktop stack around, it makes a compelling case.
