iFi GO Kensai DAC Is Perfect For Listening To Music On The Move

One drawback with having a great hi-fi system is that other audio systems just don’t sound as good. Whether you are using your smartphone or some sort of digital audio player, the quality of the audio is unlikely to match what you’re used to at home if you are fortunate enough to have a great system. There are solutions to this issue if you love great music played through great sound systems.

The new iFi GO Bar Kensei is a portable DAC and headphone amplifier that can connect to a smartphone or computer and serves up audiophile-quality sound that can hold its own with many a high-end hi-fi setup. All you need is a good streaming source (such as Tidal) and a decent pair of headphones.

I’ve now had the chance to listen to the iFi GO Bar Kensei to see if it’s worth the money over one of the many more affordable DAC/Headphone Amps on the market right now. The iFi GO Bar Kensei is the world’s first pocket-sized DAC featuring K2HD technology.

K2HD was invented by engineers at JVC Kenwood and it claims to make digitized music sound as close to the original analog master tapes by reclaiming the harmonics that are normally lost in the digitization process. It’s a bold claim and I will return to it later in this review.

The iFi GO Bar Kensei is the size of a small cigarette lighter (remember those?) and has a choice of 4.4mm Pentaconn balanced and 3.5mm unbalanced jack. The 4.4mm output has a symmetrical twin-mono output that can drive even the fussiest pair of headphones.

Thanks to something called iEMatch, the iFi GO Bar Kensei automatically varies its output to match the impedance of the IEMs or headphones connected. And for headphones with seriously demanding specs, there’s even a Turbo mode which boosts by an extra 6dB, if needed. You can turn that on by pressing the + and – volume buttons together at the same time.

Shipped in a classic Japanese wooden box, the iFi GO Bar Kensei has that unmistakable hand-crafted Japanese feel. Also included in the package is a leather pouch for storing the iFi GO Bar Kensei; there’s even a little pocket for holding a cable for connecting the iFi GO Bar Kensei to a smartphone. Both USB-C and Apple Lightning cables are provided in the box.

The iFi GO Bar Kensei feels relatively heavy for its size and feels extremely well made. At one end there is the USB-C input port, while at the other end, there are outputs for 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm unbalanced jacks. Whichever you choose will probably depend on the headphones or IEMs you are using. If you have IEMs or headphones with the option of a balanced cable, then use it. It’s a great sonic upgrade.

On the left side of the iFi GO Bar Kensei are volume buttons and a multi-function control for toggling XBass, XSpace, plus one of four digital filters. The final control on the left side is a three-way switch for the iEMatch headphone function which can be set for 4.4mm and 3.5mm outputs or turned off altogether. The purists will like that. The best approach is to try the settings and see how they suit the headphones you are using.

On the rear panel of the iFi GO Bar Kensei are nine LEDs that will light up opposite the type and resolution of the audio file being played. The iFi GO Bar Kensei can handle PCM, DSD and MQA files. The final two LEDs in the row light up whenever the XSpace and XBass settings are activated.

The XBass mode boosts the low-end frequencies a little like a loudness button, while XSpace produces a spacious sound field. The four digital filters are Bit-Perfect, GTO, Standard and Minimum Phase. Once again, just play and test them out to see what works with your ears as the effect will vary depending on the original recording.

To enter the digital filter mode, simply press down for three seconds on the multi-function button and then an LED will light up opposite the MQA lettering. Next, just toggle through the settings to see which one you like.

The four digital filter options are BP, STD, MIN and GTO. BP stands for Bit-Perfect and was my favorite. STD is a modest filter that won’t frighten the horses. MIN is a Minimum Phase filter that has a slow roll-off with minimum pre- and post-ringing. Finally, there is GTO Gibbs Transient Optimized which upsamples to 352/384kHz with minimal filtering.

To test the overall sound, I fired up Tidal on my Mac and played a Maximum FLAC recording of Just A Little Lovin’ by Shelby Lynne. The sound with the Bit-Perfect filter was beyond awesome through my Sennheiser HD660 S2 open-back headphones plugged into the 4.4mm balanced output.

The quality of sound that the iFi GO Bar Kensei produces is up there with some of the best audio systems you’re likely to hear through a pair of headphones. The bass response feels like a proper power amplifier. The control that the iFi GO Bar Kensei exerts over the music is astonishing in its accuracy.

The separation of the instruments and vocals in the recording was exemplary. Of course, if you use the iFi GO Bar Kensei on a smartphone and your data bandwidth is limited to using a lower-quality streaming file, then you won’t get that full experience. However, if you’re working from home and plugged into a Mac or PC, then the iFi GO Bar Kensei is hard to beat for personal listening. It’s stunning.

My next piece of test music was Besame Mucho by Chantal Chamberland, the French-Canadian jazz vocalist. Genuinely spine-tingling is the best way I can describe the sound. The guitar and piano were perfectly pitched on the soundstage while the brush drums in the background were positioned to the point where you could visualize the musicians as they played.

Now we come to the K2HD filter and the bold claim that this digital filter restores some of the harmonics lost during the digitization process. When analog music is mastered for CD, all data above 22kHz is cut off and resolution is diminished by 256 times.​ The K2HD Processing technology was created by JVC KENWOOD’s engineers who used their ears to tune the filter by comparing the sound to the original master tapes.

Does it work? To turn on the function it’s necessary to press the multifunction button for three seconds and then use the volume buttons to toggle on and off. The effect is subtle but, on balance, I think the H2HD adds a warmer analog vibe to the music. It’s more apparent on certain tracks than with others. It has a more noticeable impact on lower quality files such as CD quality but minimal on the best quality streams.

Verdict: The iFi GO Bar Kensei is a mini miracle and produces some of the best audio quality with a high-end streaming service like Tidal. It sounds amazing and will have you listening to all your favorite tracks all over again. The overall sound is simply superb. If you are fussy about audio quality and you enjoy listening through headphones, whether that’s at home at a computer or out and about with a smartphone, the iFi GO Bar Kensei is hard to beat. Yes, it does cost a fair bit but, in many ways, it’s a better bet than a high-end Android Digital Audio Player and a great solution for iPhone users. If you love music, you’ll love the iFi GO Bar Kensei.

Pricing & Availability: The iFi GO Bar Kensei is available now and priced at $449 / £449 / €449.

More info: www.ifi-audio.com

Tech Specs:

• Input: USB-C.
• Formats: PCM 384kHz, DSD 256, DXD 384kHz, MQA Full Decoder.
• DAC: Cirrus Logic Bit-Perfect DSD and DXD.
• Outputs: Balanced 4.4mm and Unbalanced 3.5mm.
• Power output: 475mW @ 32Ω (balanced) and 300mW @ 32Ω (unbalanced).
• Output impedance: <1Ω.
• SNR: 132dBA (balanced) and 108dBA (unbalanced).
• DNR: 109dBA (balanced) and 108dBA (unbalanced).
• THD + N: <0.002% 6.5mW/2V @ 600Ω (balanced) <0.09 100mW/1.27V (unbalanced).
• Frequency response: 20Hz – 45kHz (-3dB).
• Dimensions: 65 x 22 x 13.2mm.
• Weight: 28g.