[Chudalicious]

Maybe someone here can tell me as I just picked up the Kensei (comparing it against the Mojo2 for a portable iem setup) but it does not seems to support ALAC since everything out of iTunes lossless lights up the 44kHz bitrate indicator. Works great w Tidal but neither the Mojo2, which I knew does not support MQA or ALAC nor the Kensei seem to work w iTunes. Any insight on how to get info on what bitrate iTunes is spitting out tracks is appreciated.

Also, for the record as I had asked and it was asked again recently by someone else... I have both the Mojo2 and Kensei in hand trying to decide between the two. The soundstage does seem a bit larger and more detailed on the Mojo2 with the lower mids/bass having a tiny bit more punch. That said, the Kensei sounds really good for the size and form factor. It seems to be a smidge brighter and a little more forward to my ears with complex songs sounding a little more congested in the mid to upper highs.

More testing needed for sure and pls take my feedback with many salt grains. Running Tidal on the same tracks to test both as fairly as I can. Also sticking to my JH Laylas to ensure consistent apples to well, other apples.

 

[Syan25]

The apple lightning connection could be what's causing the issue. The newer apple products have switched to usb c which allows for lossless playback and higher sample rates. Cheese burger.

 

[alexsh1]

Maybe someone here can tell me as I just picked up the Kensei (comparing it against the Mojo2 for a portable iem setup) but it does not seems to support ALAC since everything out of iTunes lossless lights up the 44kHz bitrate indicator. Works great w Tidal but neither the Mojo2, which I knew does not support MQA or ALAC nor the Kensei seem to work w iTunes. Any insight on how to get info on what bitrate iTunes is spitting out tracks is appreciated.

Also, for the record as I had asked and it was asked again recently by someone else... I have both the Mojo2 and Kensei in hand trying to decide between the two. The soundstage does seem a bit larger and more detailed on the Mojo2 with the lower mids/bass having a tiny bit more punch. That said, the Kensei sounds really good for the size and form factor. It seems to be a smidge brighter and a little more forward to my ears with complex songs sounding a little more congested in the mid to upper highs.

More testing needed for sure and pls take my feedback with many salt grains. Running Tidal on the same tracks to test both as fairly as I can. Also sticking to my JH Laylas to ensure consistent apples to well, other apples.

I think you need Ifi DAC (v2 or v3) for ALAC. I do not think iFi Go Bar supports it.

 

[Audiofilobrpt]

Maybe someone here can tell me as I just picked up the Kensei (comparing it against the Mojo2 for a portable iem setup) but it does not seems to support ALAC since everything out of iTunes lossless lights up the 44kHz bitrate indicator. Works great w Tidal but neither the Mojo2, which I knew does not support MQA or ALAC nor the Kensei seem to work w iTunes. Any insight on how to get info on what bitrate iTunes is spitting out tracks is appreciated.

Also, for the record as I had asked and it was asked again recently by someone else... I have both the Mojo2 and Kensei in hand trying to decide between the two. The soundstage does seem a bit larger and more detailed on the Mojo2 with the lower mids/bass having a tiny bit more punch. That said, the Kensei sounds really good for the size and form factor. It seems to be a smidge brighter and a little more forward to my ears with complex songs sounding a little more congested in the mid to upper highs.

More testing needed for sure and pls take my feedback with many salt grains. Running Tidal on the same tracks to test both as fairly as I can. Also sticking to my JH Laylas to ensure consistent apples to well, other apples.

Thank you for your feedback on the comparison with the Mojo 2. It has helped a lot to get a good perspective on the difference between them. I also ask about the difference in background noise. The Mojo 2 has a black background on almost all of my IEMs. Did you need to use iematch with your iems or was it not necessary?

 

[BS5711]

Maybe someone here can tell me as I just picked up the Kensei (comparing it against the Mojo2 for a portable iem setup) but it does not seems to support ALAC since everything out of iTunes lossless lights up the 44kHz bitrate indicator. Works great w Tidal but neither the Mojo2, which I knew does not support MQA or ALAC nor the Kensei seem to work w iTunes. Any insight on how to get info on what bitrate iTunes is spitting out tracks is appreciated.

Also, for the record as I had asked and it was asked again recently by someone else... I have both the Mojo2 and Kensei in hand trying to decide between the two. The soundstage does seem a bit larger and more detailed on the Mojo2 with the lower mids/bass having a tiny bit more punch. That said, the Kensei sounds really good for the size and form factor. It seems to be a smidge brighter and a little more forward to my ears with complex songs sounding a little more congested in the mid to upper highs.

More testing needed for sure and pls take my feedback with many salt grains. Running Tidal on the same tracks to test both as fairly as I can. Also sticking to my JH Laylas to ensure consistent apples to well, other apples.

What are you running the ALAC files from ?

I think it is more likely the source doesn’t adjust to the correct output based on the file type than the DACs not supporting ALAC.

I use Apple Music lossless which uses ALAC to a standard Go Bar and an original Mojo and they support up to 24/192 without issue.

I also use Tidal and the apps adjust the output based on the file type automatically.

Apple Music from iOS or Android will correctly output tracks up to 24/192 but a desktop MAC using Apple Music won’t. That requires manual adjustment of the Audio MIDI or use of Lossless Switcher.

 

[iFi audio]

I understand that K2HD is a way to effectively upsample music to 192kHz/24-bit.
In a similar way Cayin RU7 is upsampling it to DSD64/128/256.

However, I have doubts one can benefit from this if listening to a music in CD quality. I think the main benefit would be when listening to a lossy format like mp3. Am I correct?

As far as listening impressions go I don't want to speak to much from personal experience as I only had the Kensei for a short time.

But I will give this example. I was listening to "The Final Cut" by Pink Floyd and with the K2 HD engaged I really felt as though it was a huge improvement over it being not engaged. Some of the sections of this album with K2 engaged had me feeling like I was listening to pristine Vinyl!

Hopefully, more folks can give this a listen to see if I am losing it, but even at AXPONA most folks preferred the imaging and overall feel of the K2 engaged, vs. not.

I hope this helps!

Cheers!!

 

[Chudalicious]

Thank you for your feedback on the comparison with the Mojo 2. It has helped a lot to get a good perspective on the difference between them. I also ask about the difference in background noise. The Mojo 2 has a black background on almost all of my IEMs. Did you need to use iematch with your iems or was it not necessary?

Both my JH Audio Rox and Layla did not have background noise but I do notice they need to be driven a bit so thinking they are not as sensitive as I had originally thought. Worth saying I did not engage any filters either as I used both DACs in the purest way possible.

 

[alexsh1]

As far as listening impressions go I don't want to speak to much from personal experience as I only had the Kensei for a short time.

But I will give this example. I was listening to "The Final Cut" by Pink Floyd and with the K2 HD engaged I really felt as though it was a huge improvement over it being not engaged. Some of the sections of this album with K2 engaged had me feeling like I was listening to pristine Vinyl!

Hopefully, more folks can give this a listen to see if I am losing it, but even at AXPONA most folks preferred the imaging and overall feel of the K2 engaged, vs. not.

I hope this helps!

Cheers!!

Thanks for an interesting note.
I'll try to listen to one somewhere before placing an order

 

[Audiofilobrpt]

Both my JH Audio Rox and Layla did not have background noise but I do notice they need to be driven a bit so thinking they are not as sensitive as I had originally thought. Worth saying I did not engage any filters either as I used both DACs in the purest way possible.

Thanks for answering!! But, is this use with these two IEMs with iematch activated or deactivated?

 

[Chudalicious]

The apple lightning connection could be what's causing the issue. The newer apple products have switched to usb c which allows for lossless playback and higher sample rates. Cheese burger.

I tried the same via my MacBook using usb-c and still had the issue. I may reach out to ifi to see if it is officially supported or not.

Would I need to change the midi settings for the device output in the MacBook? I also don’t see the little squiggle in Apple iTunes anymore that you used to be able to click on a few days ago and see what bitrate was playing.

 

[Chudalicious]

Thanks for answering!! But, is this use with these two IEMs with iematch activated or deactivated?

Deactivated. Did not see a need for them. As noted, no filters were on across either device.

 

[Audiofilobrpt]

Thank you for sharing your experience with Kensei.

 

[BS5711]

I tried the same via my MacBook using usb-c and still had the issue. I may reach out to ifi to see if it is officially supported or not.

Would I need to change the midi settings for the device output in the MacBook? I also don’t see the little squiggle in Apple iTunes anymore that you used to be able to click on a few days ago and see what bitrate was playing.

Your issue isn't that ALAC isn't supported, it is, it is similar to FLAC, it works fine but you are not getting the expected sample rate indicated for other reasons.

I don't use I tunes but I doubt it is materially different to Apple Music in respect of your issue.

If that is the case then yes, as I described in my comment above, you need to manually adjust the Audio MIDI setting to get the output right.

If you ran them through Apple Music, which I believe can be done, local files run through the streaming app, you still need to adjust the MIDI manually or for Apple Music you can download a little free app that runs in parallel with Apple Music and switches the MIDI for you. There is a slight hiccup for about a second in the start of a track when the app changes the settings but only when it is changing settings so if listening to an album that is say 24/192 after one that is 16/44.1 there will be one change at the start of the first track with a slight hiccup then nothing further for the rest of the album.

That app is called "Lossless Switcher", very easy to use.

 

[Chudalicious]

@BS5711 thanks for the tip. It was a royal PIA to keep switching Midi player and the Lossless Switcher was just what I needed.

You made my night. In fact, everyone here has been so helpful in working out the kinks with both the Mojo2 and the Kensei to be able to best utilize them and test across music platforms (which I had almost given up on).

(off soapbox)

 

[BS5711]

@BS5711 thanks for the tip. It was a royal PIA to keep switching Midi player and the Lossless Switcher was just what I needed.

You made my night. In fact, everyone here has been so helpful in working out the kinks with both the Mojo2 and the Kensei to be able to best utilize them and test across music platforms (which I had almost given up on).

(off soapbox)

Happy to have had the same experience and that it could help you solve a simple but frustrating problem.