Kiwi Ears: what they publish

In this database12 headphones and 2 sources
Figures from their own material8 of 18
Share44%

This page does not review anything Kiwi Ears makes. It counts one thing: how much of what this database says about their products came out of their own documents, and how much had to be worked out or left blank.

Where each sensitivity figure came from

ModelImpedanceSensitivitySource of the figure
Airoso18 Ω110.0 dB/mWPublished per mW
Astral23 Ω105.0 dBUnit not stated
Belle32 Ω103.0 dBUnit not stated
Cadenza32 Ω110.0 dB/mWPublished per mW
Cadenza II18 Ω106.0 dBUnit not stated
Chorus32 Ω103.0 dBUnit not stated
Halcyon29 Ω109.0 dB/mWPublished per mW
KE428 Ω102.0 dBUnit not stated
Orchestra II15 Ω110.0 dB/mWPublished per mW
Orchestra Lite16 Ω112.0 dBUnit not stated
Quartet32 Ω110.0 dB/mWPublished per mW
Stardust13 Ω107.0 dBUnit not stated

Impedance is almost always printed. Sensitivity is the one that goes wrong, because a decibel figure means two very different things depending on whether it is per milliwatt or per volt — about five decibels apart at 300 Ω and eighteen at 16 Ω. The conversion is here.

  • Published per mW — 5: the maker prints a decibel figure per milliwatt, which is what the database stores
  • Unit not stated — 7: the maker prints a decibel figure with no reference unit, so it is shown as printed and flagged rather than quietly converted

The three figures that decide a match

ProductInto 32ΩOutput impedanceOutput noise
Kiwi Ears Allegro Mini30 mWnot published3.0 µV
Kiwi Ears Allegro Pro68 mWnot publishednot published

Power decides whether it gets loud enough, output impedance decides whether it tilts the response of a multi-driver in-ear, and the noise figure decides whether you hear hiss with sensitive ones. All three fit on one line of a spec sheet; most of the industry prints one of them.

Kiwi Ears publishes a power figure at a stated load on 2 of 2, output impedance on 0, a noise figure on 1. Of the 8 power figures this site displays for them at 32, 150, 300 and 600 Ω: 2 printed by Kiwi Ears at that exact load, 6 worked out by holding output voltage steady across loads.

What the paperwork adds up to

Rather less than half of what this site says about Kiwi Ears came from them. The rest is arithmetic, and it is marked as arithmetic on every page.

The rule used here is the same for every maker and is described on the manufacturer index. Every figure behind it can be opened on the product page it came from, with the document it came from linked.