KIWI EARS Allegro

Summary
To summarize the review, this is Allegro, a budget dac dongle from Kiwi Ears, coming in at 60$. This is their first attempt at making a dac dongle, and I must say they did it well. Build and design is really good, with a full metal build and unique old school game controller design. There are two buttons for volume control on the top, unfortunately the buttons on the front are just for show. Price wise specs are standard, with ESS9028Q2M DAC chip and up to 155mW power output on balanced. So how does it sound? This sounds quite decent, a bit more on the analytical side. I found this to be quite enjoyable with warmer sounding iems. If you are looking for an all rounder dac dongle with cool looks, this is a great option in my opinion.



Intro
Hey guys, whats up
This is the Kiwi Ears Allegro, a budget dongle dac coming in at 60$. Allegro is the first ever dongle dac released by Kiwi Ears, so it was exciting to check out.
Talking about Kiwi Ears, they are a pretty popular chifi iem brand. I have previously checked out some of their products, among which Quintet and Orchestra Lite was notably good. Getting back to the Allegro, they have gained attention specially because of its nostalgic analog game controller look. Anyways lets get into the review starting off with specs.

Disclaimer: this unit was purchased with my own money and this review is my honest and unbiased opinion, thanks.



Specs
> DAC Chip: ES9028Q2M
> THD+N: 0.0015% (32 Ohms)
> Output Power: 70mW@32 Ohms (3.5mm), 155mW@32 Ohms (4.4mm)
> SNR: 123dB
> Frequency Response: 20Hz~40kHz
> Noise Floor: <1μV
> Supported Formats: PCM (up to 32bit/384kHz), DSD (DSD256, DSD128, DSD64)
> Indicator Lights: PCM (blue), DSD (red)
> PRICE: $59.99 USD

Packaging
Starting off with the packaging of the Allegro, its very simple, maybe a bit too simple in my opinion. The box contains papers, the dac itself and a usb type C to C cable. The included cable is quite nice but they should included a type C to usb A adaptor. I will talk more about the cable in the build and design section.


Build and Design
Moving on to the build and design of the Allegro, this is amazing. The design, as you can see in the pictures is inspired by old school game controller which I find really unique and attractive. The build is also quite solid, full metal construction, aluminum to be exact. It has nice weight, feels more premium for the price. Thanks to the matte finish finger prints are not an issue. The silver color is nice but a beige version of this would give it a more old school vibe. In my use case, I did notice some minor scratches though.
On the fromt of the dongle the buttons are just for show, i wish they had some function. The top side is curved and has two circular buttons for volume up and down. The bottom side is flat and plain. On the back is the kiwi ears logo and a LED indicator. On the right is the 4.4mm and 3.5mm outputs and type C input on the left.
The included cable is really good. Construction of the cable is high quality regardless of the price. The connectors are metal and the pvc covering is done well.


User Experience
Moving on to the user experience of the Allegro, it is as you would expect from a dongle at this price, simple and to the point. Talking about controls, you only get volume up and down. This was not that power hungry, this drained around 10% percent battery every hour of listening from my samsung galaxy S20 and pixel 2xl. Power output is nothing crazy, but can power most iems perfectly except the really power hungry ones. I did find the LED indicator placement to be a bit odd though, because you would not usually look at the back side of the dac. Honestly I can not think of any major cons here.



Sound
Now most importantly how does it sound? This sounds great, talking about sound signature, this is more towards analytical than neutral. Bass performance is very clean and tight but a bit more depth would have been nice. Mids is also clean and transparent type but with brighter sounding iems upper mids might sound a bit thin. Treble is energetic and quite detailed, I find this dongle to pair well with warmer iems. Staging and imaging is accurate. I tried it with a couple Kiwi Ears iems, it was lovely specially with Orchestra Lite.

Tested with:
IEMS: Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite, Kiwi Ears Quintet, Simgot EA1000, Moondrop Aria 2, Thie Audio Hype 2
Headphones: Koss KPH30i, Koss Porta Pro, Aune AR5000



Conclusion
To conclude the review, I can say if you are looking for a unique looking, well built and decent sounding dac dongle, this is a solid option. Personally I like this more from my previous favor ate at sub 50$ budget, Moondrop Dawn Pro. Props to Kiwi Ears, they have done a beautiful job specially with the design. Thanks to you guys for checking out my review, see you in the next one.

The KiwiEars Allegro is a simple and budget friendly Dongle-dac with a cool gamepad design. It is made well out of aluminum and has built in volume controls. I would have liked if the game controls worked some features, but they are just for show. The accessories are bare minimal. The included cable is however made well.
The Allegro utilizes the ES9028Q2M DAC chip, and it offers both 3.5mm single-ended and 4.4mm balanced outputs, with High-resolution audio support: to handle PCM up to 32-bit/384kHz and DSD up to DSD256.


Sound opinion:
The Allegro is neutral dongle with good soundstage and details overall. Bass, Midrange, and Treble are all presented well and without elevation. It has low noise and drives sensitive IEM without hissing.
The Dongle is not the most powerful for sure but was able to drive my full-sized headphones to a comfortable level but defiantly not to their potential.



The KiwiEars Allegro is a good dongle for under $70, it may not have a lush signature, but it is true to the original recording and has respectable details.

TLDR version on YouTube: TDLR - Kiwi Ears Allegro

The Kiwi Ears Allegro has been sent to me by Linsoul in exchange for the publication of this review. Linsoul have not made any requests and I will do my best, as always, to be as unbiased as possible.

You can find a link to the Allegro via Linsoul by visiting the version of this review published on my blog (www.achoreviews.com).

As with all links I publish, it is a non-affiliate link.



Intro…

The Kiwi Ears Allegro is the first dongle from the brand, in fact, I believe it is the first product from the brand outside of IEMs, unless there has been a product I have missed. Priced at just over 50€ (at the time of writing this review), it is quite a cheap and cheerful device that is aimed at those looking for something to power their IEMs. I say this because the specified power output of the Allegro (70mW @ 32Ohms unbalanced and 155mW @ 32 Ohms balanced) is not something that is really aimed at driving more demanding over ear headphones or even some of the hungrier IEMs out there. However, as a source for IEMs, especially those that are similar to Kiwi’s own sets, it is more than enough. In fact, it actually performs better than some other alternatives due to the amplification being totally controlled by the device itself and not the source feeding it.

I used the dongle for some time in the office and then took it with me on a business trip to the US this week, where my only devices were the Kiwi Ears Quintet and a set of Sony Linkbuds S (for when needing ANC) and I can’t say that I have found myself regretting it.

But anyway, let’s take a look at this retro-gaming inspired device and talk about how it does in the budget dongle field.



Presentation…

The packaging and presentation of the Allegro is minimalistic. A simple black box with a lift off lid, showing an outline of the device, the brand logo and the slogan “Live the music”, reveals the dongle sitting inside along with the included cable and a very simple booklet with some specs.

It’s funny that the booklet says “Please read the user manual carefully before use the product. Thanks”, yet there are no instructions in the booklet, just an overview of the specs in multiple languages. It is quite possible that there is a manual to be downloaded somewhere but, if that is the case, there is no mention of it in or on the box (and I haven’t looked online).

Not really anything else to say about the packaging, its very simple, it works and it’s all we need.



Build and aesthetics…

I have been on a bit of a retro-gaming journey lately, picking up a couple of retro handheld devices and emulating some of the “golden oldies”. When I received the Allegro, I was amused to find that it looks like a retro console controller.

Made from metal, the front features a D-Pad and a couple of buttons labelled A and B, with the Kiwi Logo in the top right. The top of the device (controller?) is rounded and has a small recess where two round buttons are located. It is a shame that the front panel buttons are not functional as it would have been a nice touch, but I still find the aesthetics to be cheerful and something different. As always, I praise companies for doing something away from what every other company is doing.

As far as the build quality, it seems to be of very good quality. It certainly got thrown around quite a bit on my transatlantic flights and in the hotel & office, showing no signs of being mistreated.

The included cable is also a nicely built USB-C to USB-C which is made to look like it has two separate cores (which I guess it does). Not sure there is any benefit to this but it does look good.




Functionality…

I already said that the front buttons are not functional, so that just leaves the top buttons, which are used to increase and decrease volume. The volume control is done completely onboard, so there is no change to the source, nor can it be changed by the source when using exclusive modes in things like UAPP. I much prefer this set up.

On one end of the device we get a USB-C connector for data and power, which has proved to not have any issue with Android or Windows, although I can’t comment on iOS.

At the other end we get a 4.4mm balanced output and a 3.5mm unbalanced output, which are pretty self explanatory.

The only other remaining thing is a very small status LED that is located on the back. It is a very strange place to place this LED as I didn’t even realize it was there until I was pulling it out of the IEM case and dropped it (still no sign of abuse ), seeing what looked like a tiny reset hole on the back, the type that you would stick a pin in to reset. As I couldn't think why a reset hole would be needed, I looked a little closer and finally realized it was an LED (plugging it in to confirm). Again, a strange place to put it but it is there.

That is it as far as functionality, there are no presets, gain levels or filters, so it really is a simple device.





Sound…

The Alegro uses a ES9028Q2M DAC chip which is something that I haven’t come across in a device before, at least as far as I am aware. I know that Audiophonics uses this in one of their DACs for the Raspberry Pi but I haven’t tried it and, as I just said, I don’t know of any other devices that use it. Maybe some telephones?

Anyway, that is what Kiwi have chosen and, as always, I feel that the implementation is always more important than the actual chip itself. In this case, Kiwi seem to have done a decent job of making a good sounding device for a very reasonable price.

If I were to label the overall sound signature, I would say it is aiming more toward the analytical side of things. More towards cool than warm. Although it is not too analytical, not enough to not be enjoyable, at least to my ears.

I can’t say it is my favourite dongle ever but I also can’t bring myself to complain about it. As I mentioned above, this, paired with the Quintet, was the only device I took with me for my trip and I used it exclusively (except when opting to use ANC to try and disconnect for a while on the flight back). During this time I did not find myself irritated or feeling like I was missing anything at all. It does a great job of bringing out the details in the Quintet without making them seem tiring, which I have found with some other “analytical” sources in the past, due to the already almost “analytical” nature of the IEMs.

I also found it to pair very nicely with the Kiwi Ears Cadenza. The Cadenza, as I have said many times in the past, are a set of ultra budget IEMs that I really enjoy and the pairing with the Allegro gives you a very enjoyable portable system for less than 80€.

If I had to choose, I would say that it pairs slightly better with sets that have a little warmth to them, such as the Cadenza or the Zero 2, but without the being overly warm This seems to give a little more focus to the details of said sets but without ever losing the focus of their signature. Although, as said with the Quintet, even more analytical sets don’t sound bad on the Allegro, I would just refrain from sets that are bright in their tuning as things may get a little thin at times.



Conclusion…

I really like the Kiwi Ears Allegro for just over 50€. It is not my favourite dongle, nor is it a ground breaking experience, but it is cheap and cheerful and will power most IEMs no problem, while doing a decent job.

I would probably recommend this to those who want a no frills budget dongle to power their IEMs and are not sure which way to turn. Yes, there are dongles that bring out more details, others that bring a warmer presentation, others that have more features, but in general, at the 50€ price point, I don’t think the Allegro is inferior to any of the competition around it.

I think I will end up using it paired with a retro handheld, not because I need it but because it looks so cool doing so

__
As always, this review is also available in Spanish, both on my blog (www.achoreviews.com) and on YouTube (www.youtube.com/achoreviews)