Both are dongles, $219 against $299. This page puts them side by side on the only three things a maker can be held to — power, output impedance and noise — and then asks the question that actually matters: which headphones do they treat differently?
The EarMen Colibri reaches 100 dB on 563 of the 567 models here, the Astell&Kern HC4 on 561.
| Specification | Astell&Kern HC4 | EarMen Colibri |
|---|---|---|
| Power into 32Ω | 125 mW | 75 mW |
| Power into 150Ω | 27 mW | 16 mW |
| Power into 300Ω | 13 mW | 8.0 mW |
| Power into 600Ω | 6.7 mW | 4.0 mW |
| Output impedance | 0.9 Ω | not published |
| Output noise | not published | not published |
| Price | $219 | $299 |
| Headphones it reaches 100 dB on out of 567 | 561 | 563 |
A figure marked not published is missing from the maker’s own material, which is not the same as being good or bad. Where one of these two publishes a number and the other does not, the comparison on that axis cannot be made at all — and saying so is more useful than guessing.
2 headphones reach 100 dB on the Astell&Kern HC4 but not on the EarMen Colibri — HiFiMAN Susvara, Moondrop SKYLAND.
4 headphones reach 100 dB on the EarMen Colibri but not on the Astell&Kern HC4 — Moondrop COSMO, Symphonium Crimson, Symphonium Helios, 1 more.
559 of the 567 models here reach 100 dB on both. That is a power count and nothing more; whether either source suits a given headphone also depends on the two lines above.
Each has a page of its own with every power figure traced to what the maker published and a full headphone list: Astell&Kern HC4 and EarMen Colibri. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.