Portable AMPs
New dongles, portable amps and Bluetooth receivers: the category that changes fastest and where spec sheets are least comparable.
Audma's Brioso PHPA1 is a £4,400 portable amplifier with soundstage controls
Named best portable DAC and amp at CanJam London 2026, the Brioso PHPA1 pairs an AKM flagship converter with Stage and Angle controls that reshape the stereo image.
FiiO's SNOWSKY GAME TAIL is a gaming dongle with a dedicated microphone port
On FiiO's published 2026 roadmap for a summer release, GAME TAIL is a USB dongle DAC aimed squarely at mobile gaming, with virtual 7.1 and a separate microphone input.
ULTRASONE's NAOS MICRO is a €199 dual-DAC dongle with a balanced output
The only source component in ULTRASONE's five-product July premiere: two CS43131 converters, 3.5 mm and 4.4 mm outputs, PCM to 384 kHz and native DSD256, at €199.
FiiO's SNOWSKY TINY is a $21.99 USB-C DAC and amp with a 10-band EQ
A pocket dongle at $21.99 carrying a DSP engine and 10-band parametric EQ through the FiiO Control app, with support for the major lossless streaming tiers.
iFi launches the GO link 2 Max at $85 with a balanced output
Unveiled at High End Vienna 2026, the Max adds S-Balanced architecture and up to 241 mW of output over the standard GO link 2, on a dual-DAC ESS Sabre chipset.
iFi launches the GO link 2 dongle DAC at $59
At $59 the GO link 2 is 8% smaller and 29% lighter than the original, on an ESS Sabre chipset, and the first in the range to take over-the-air firmware updates.
These are announcements, not verdicts. Nothing here is measured until a unit reaches the rig. For tested portable amps, see Portable AMPs reviews. Back to all new releases.