Both are audio interfaces, $720 against $699. 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 MOTU UltraLite-mk5 reaches 100 dB on 566 of the 567 models here, the Audient NERO on 559.
| Specification | Audient NERO | MOTU UltraLite-mk5 |
|---|---|---|
| Power into 32Ω | 86 mW | 471 mW |
| Power into 150Ω | 23 mW | 100 mW |
| Power into 300Ω | 13 mW | 50 mW |
| Power into 600Ω | 7.4 mW | 25 mW |
| Output impedance | not published | 1 Ω |
| Output noise | not published | not published |
| Price | $720 | $699 |
| Headphones it reaches 100 dB on out of 567 | 559 | 566 |
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.
7 headphones reach 100 dB on the MOTU UltraLite-mk5 but not on the Audient NERO — Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA, Moondrop PARA 2, 4 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: Audient NERO and MOTU UltraLite-mk5. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.