Astell&Kern SR35 vs HiBy RS6

Both are portable players, $800 against $999. 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 Astell&Kern SR35 reaches 100 dB on 565 of the 567 models here, the HiBy RS6 on 564.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationAstell&Kern SR35HiBy RS6
Power into 32Ω300 mW180 mW
Power into 150Ω64 mW38 mW
Power into 300Ω32 mW19 mW
Power into 600Ω16 mW9.6 mW
Output impedance1.1 Ω0.4 Ω
Output noise4 µV unverifiednot published
Price$800$999
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
565564

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.

The headphones that tell them apart

1 headphone reaches 100 dB on the Astell&Kern SR35 but not on the HiBy RS6 — Symphonium Crimson.

27 headphones are left alone by the HiBy RS6 under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the Astell&Kern SR35 (64 Audio Nio, 64 Audio U18s, 64 Audio Volur, 24 more).

564 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.

Both pages in full

Each has a page of its own with every power figure traced to what the maker published and a full headphone list: Astell&Kern SR35 and HiBy RS6. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.