The iFi GO Bar Kensei DAC is perfect for listening to music on the go

One downside to a good hi-fi system is that other audio systems simply don’t sound as good. Whether you use your smartphone or a digital audio player, if you’re lucky enough to have a great system, the audio quality is unlikely to match the quality you’re used to at home. There are solutions to this problem if you love great music played through great sound systems.

The new iFi GO Bar Kensei is a portable DAC and headphone amplifier that connects to a smartphone or computer and delivers audiophile sound that rivals many high-end HiFi setups. All you need is a good streaming source (e.g. Tidal) and a good pair of headphones.

I’ve now had the opportunity to listen to the iFi GO Bar Kensei to see if it’s worth the money compared to one of the many cheaper DAC/headphone amplifiers on the market. The iFi GO Bar Kensei is the world’s first pocket-sized DAC with K2HD technology.

Invented by engineers at JVC Kenwood, K2HD claims to make digitized music sound as close to the original analog master tapes by recovering the overtones that are normally lost in the digitization process. That’s a bold claim and I’ll return to it later in this review.

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

Thanks to something called iEMatch, the iFi GO Bar Kensei automatically adjusts its output to the impedance of the connected IEMs or headphones. And for headphones with very demanding specifications, there is even a Turbo mode that boosts by an additional 6 dB if necessary. You can turn this on by pressing the volume + and – buttons at the same time.

The iFi GO Bar Kensei comes in a classic Japanese wooden box and conveys the unmistakable handcrafted Japanese flair. Also included in the package is a leather case for storing the iFi GO Bar Kensei; There’s even a small pocket for a cable to connect the iFi GO Bar Kensei to a smartphone. Both USB-C and Apple Lightning cables are included.

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

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

There are nine LEDs on the back of the iFi GO Bar Kensei that light up depending on the type and resolution of the audio file being played. The iFi GO Bar Kensei can handle PCM, DSD and MQA files. The last two LEDs in the row light up whenever the XSpace and XBass settings are activated.

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

To enter digital filter mode, simply press the multifunction button for three seconds and then an LED opposite the MQA lettering will light up. Next, just scroll 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 does not scare the horses. MIN is a minimum phase filter with slow decay and minimal pre- and post-ringing. Finally, there’s GTO Gibbs Transient Optimized, which upsamples to 352/384 kHz with minimal filtering.

To test the overall sound, I launched Tidal on my Mac and played a Maximum FLAC recording Just a little love by Shelby Lynne. The sound with the Bit-Perfect filter was overwhelming through my open-back Sennheiser HD660 S2 headphones connected to the balanced 4.4mm output.

The sound quality that the iFi GO Bar Kensei produces is on par with some of the best audio systems you’re likely to listen to through headphones. The bass response feels like a real power amplifier. The control that the iFi GO Bar Kensei exerts over the music is astonishing in its precision.

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

My next piece of test music was Besame Mucho by Chantal Chamberland, the French-Canadian jazz singer. The sound is really scary, that’s the best description I can find for it. The guitar and piano were perfectly tuned on stage, while the brush drums were positioned in the background so that you could visualize the musicians playing.

Now let’s move on 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 a CD, all data above 22 kHz is cut off and the resolution is reduced by 256 times. The K2HD processing technology was developed by JVC KENWOOD engineers, who tuned the filter with their ears by comparing the sound with the original master tapes.

It works? To turn on the feature, you need to press and hold the multifunction button for three seconds and then use the volume buttons to turn it on and off. The effect is subtle, but overall I think the H2HD gives the music a warmer analog feel. In certain titles it is more noticeable than in others. For lower quality files, e.g. In some cases, such as CD quality, the effects are more noticeable, but in the best quality streams they are minimal.

Verdict: The iFi GO Bar Kensei is a small miracle and delivers the best audio quality with a high-end streaming service like Tidal. It sounds amazing and will make you want to listen to all your favorite tracks again. The overall sound is just great. If you value audio quality and enjoy listening through headphones, whether at home on your computer or on the go with your smartphone, the iFi GO Bar Kensei is hard to beat. Yes, it costs a lot, but in many ways it’s a better choice 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.

Prices and availability: The iFi GO Bar Kensei is available now priced at $449 / £449 / €449.

More info: www.ifi-audio.com

Technical data:

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