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Sound Details
The bass response of the Kensei is characterized by a natural and effortless quality, providing just the right amount of quantity without bleeding into the mid-range. It exhibits a subtle mid-bass warmth, contributing to an overall satisfying bass experience. While the bass hits aren’t exceedingly deep, they are well-layered, textured, and resolving. The rumble is moderate, fitting well with the device’s signature, and both the speed and decay of the bass are impressive, ensuring a tight and controlled low-end performance.
The mids are balanced but there’s a sense of urgency and closeness that enhances the overall listening experience, making it both enjoyable and musical. The mids are organic and natural, exhibiting excellent tonality. Unlike the original GoBar which felt a bit “digital” in the midrange, the Kensei improves in this area. It offers good harmony and richness, with impressive transparency, resulting in a more cohesive and immersive sound signature.
The Go Bar Kensei offers a clean sound that avoids being overly bright or aggressive. The treble region is successful, featuring good extension and transparency, and maintaining clear separation from the mids. Compared to its predecessor, the Kensei shows a noticeable improvement in treble articulation and transparency.
The treble is coherent, well-controlled, and balanced in quantity. It avoids being too laid back or exaggerated, offering sufficient presence with good definition, detail, and extension. While the original Go Bar already has good treble performance, the Kensei offers a more refined experience with a better nuanced and defined presentation. This makes the Kensie a well-worth upgrade over the original Go Bar in terms of treble quality.
Technical Performance
The soundstage of the Go Bar Kensei is improved over its predecessor, providing good width and depth. The new Kensei offers more space and air, creating a more immersive soundstage. This was a key area for potential improvement, and iFi has successfully addressed it. Additionally, the separation ability of the Kensei is enhanced, offering better layering and sound separation.
The resolution and transparency of the Kensei are also noteworthy for a dongle DAC. The mid-region, in particular, is enjoyable due to its detailed and high-resolution presentation. The device excels in placing the right elements in their correct positions, resulting in good stereo imaging. Its dynamics shine with excellent pace, rhythm, and timing (PRaT). The speed and attack are impressive, and the background remains very quiet, contributing to good imaging.
The Kensei’s power output is strong, easily driving headphones like the Hifiman Edition XS and Sennheiser HD 660S. While it might not be the ultimate setup for full-size cans, it delivers more than sufficient volume, especially indoors. The amp stage is powerful, and the noise floor is exceptionally low enough. With the inclusion of the IEMatch feature, it also handles sensitive IEMs silently. Overall, the Bar Kensei is a versatile device with an all-around high-performance profile.
Comparisons
Comparisons vs. iBasso DC Elite will be added here in a few days.
Everything except the sound output and K2HD processing are identical to the previous Go Bar and Gold Bar, except that the Gold Bar is even heavier than the Kensei. When it comes to sound, the Gold Bar is quite warm and organic sounding with great tonality. It is the most unique and impressive dongle I’ve listened to.
The Kensei carries a similar technical performance, but it’s more neutral and crisper, with a sharper approach to the sound. The Gold Bar is just a bit more special, but it’s sold out so the Kensei is the best option albeit the 2nd hand market. However, if you don’t seek that special warmth, the Kensei performs almost identical to the Gold Bar in terms of technicalities, such as resolution, imaging and transparency.
You might wonder about the performance of the Kensei against the hip-dac 3. The Kensei is simply the more ergonomic and compact device, offering similar features and functions if not more. I found the Kensei to be more enjoyable with a more immersive sound experience. It puts up such a great performance, especially in terms of natural, cohesive and organic feeling. After listening to the Kensei, especially in terms of mid-range performance, you may find the hip-dac 3 to be a bit too neutral or ”digital”.
However, the hip-dac 3 costs less with a good sound performance. Although the Kensei is very impressive, you can get the hip-dac 3 if you’re more limited in terms of budget. If you already have the hip-dac 3, I don’t think you have to upgrade to the Kensei, unless you want to utilize the Kensei’s much smaller footprint for on-the-go situations.
Conclusion
Page 1: iFi Audio, GO Bar Kensei, Packaging
Page 2: Design & Build, Overall Experience, Sound General





Adam
What about comparison vs DC-Elite which has been promised?
Oscar Antonio López Quintanilla
Better make a comparison with the L&P W4, iBasso DC-Elite, HiBy FC6, Cayin RU7 as well as the iFi GO Bar Kensei.
Jorge Rafael
I can’t find the comparison between the DC Elite and IfI Go Bar Kensei. Which one in your opinion has better sound quality? Please be specific and if possible use percentages.
Thank you