Dossier — Kiwi Ears Allegro Mini
The brochure speaks; the silicon answers. What follows is what each has said.
+ Vendor page › +Claims breakdown
| Claim | Bucket | Witnessed | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCM 32-bit / 384 kHz | PCM | Alt 1, Subslot 2 — 16-bit PCM. Sample Rates Supported (kHz): 44.1 48 88.2 96 176.4 192 352.8 384Alt 2, Subslot 3 — 24-bit PCM. Sample Rates Supported (kHz): 44.1 48 88.2 96 176.4 192 352.8 384Alt 3, Subslot 4 — 32-bit PCM. Sample Rates Supported (kHz): 44.1 48 88.2 96 176.4 192 352.8 384 | ✓ Match |
| DSD64 / DSD128 | Silent | Kiwi Ears copy names DSD without specifying native vs. DoP. The descriptor declares no raw DSD alt; on this modern bridge class DSD is delivered via the DSD-over-PCM (DoP) transport, which rides PCM alts at marker rates (176.4 kHz for DSD64, 352.8 kHz for DSD128) and cannot be witnessed as a distinct alt — see Remarks. | — Silent: claims unwitnessable by descriptor |
Remarks
Kiwi Ears rates the Allegro Mini at PCM 32-bit / 384 kHz, and the descriptor meets it — native 16-, 24-, and 32-bit containers carrying the full ladder to 384 kHz on a high-speed USB Audio Class 2 interface. Red Book material plays at its own 16-bit depth; nothing is forced up into a wider container to flatter the spec.
On DSD, the marketing names DSD64 and DSD128 without saying how they arrive. The descriptor declares no raw DSD alt — and on a modern bridge of this class, that absence is itself the answer: DSD reaches the converter over the DSD-over-PCM (DoP) transport, carried inside the PCM stream at marker rates rather than as a native one-bit path. The capability is real; the route is DoP, not native — a distinction the headline leaves unstated and the descriptor makes plain.
A note on the keying. The USB identity here is a shared bridge marque, not a mark unique to Kiwi Ears — the host announced only the generic platform string "CDS.KT USB Audio," the signature of a KTMicro bridge that carries other budget dongles as well. The Concordance keys by what the descriptor declares; here the descriptor declared the shared bridge, and the witnessing named the rest.
+ See the full Concordance +