ddHiFi TC35Air vs Kiwi Ears Allegro Pro

Short answer

  • More power: the ddHiFi TC35Air, with 210 mW into 32 Ω; the Kiwi Ears Allegro Pro has 68 mW. The ddHiFi TC35Air drives 10 headphones to 100 dB that the Kiwi Ears Allegro Pro cannot (HiFiMAN HE-6se V2, HiFiMAN HE6 Remastered, HiFiMAN Susvara, 7 more).
  • Hiss with sensitive IEMs: cannot be compared — neither maker publishes a noise figure.
  • Price: the ddHiFi TC35Air costs $14 less, and wherever both makers publish a figure the Kiwi Ears Allegro Pro shows no advantage for the extra money.

Both are dongles, $46 against $60.

The ddHiFi TC35Air reaches 100 dB on 564 of the 567 models here, the Kiwi Ears Allegro Pro on 554.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationddHiFi TC35AirKiwi Ears Allegro Pro
Power into 32Ω210 mW68 mW
Power into 150Ω45 mW15 mW
Power into 300Ω22 mW7.3 mW
Power into 600Ω11 mW3.6 mW
Output impedancenot publishednot published
Output noisenot publishednot published
Price$46$60
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
564554

Not published means the maker leaves it out, so that axis cannot be compared.

The 4.4 mm or XLR socket, rated on its own

BalancedddHiFi TC35AirKiwi Ears Allegro Pro
Socketno separate rating4.4mm
Power into 32Ω—170 mW
Power into 300Ω—18 mW derived
Output impedance—not published
Output noise—not published
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
—563

Only the Kiwi Ears Allegro Pro has a separate balanced rating from its maker; through it, it reaches 100 dB on 563 of the 567 models here. The ddHiFi TC35Air may still have a balanced socket — its spec sheet simply gives no figure for one, so there is nothing to put beside it. Derived figures are worked out from the loads the maker did publish.

Where each power figure comes from

LoadddHiFi TC35AirKiwi Ears Allegro Pro
32 ΩPublishedPublished
150 ΩDerivedDerived
300 ΩDerivedDerived
600 ΩDerivedDerived

Both makers publish a power rating. ddHiFi TC35Air publishes at 32 Ω; Kiwi Ears Allegro Pro at 32 Ω. The other rows are worked out from those.

The two publish at the same loads, which is the one case where the rows of this table can be read straight across.

What the labels mean.

The headphones that tell them apart

10 headphones reach 100 dB on the ddHiFi TC35Air but not on the Kiwi Ears Allegro Pro — HiFiMAN HE-6se V2, HiFiMAN HE6 Remastered, HiFiMAN Susvara, 7 more.

554 of the 567 models here reach 100 dB on both.

Headroom and hiss on 8 models, both sources

Headroom is at a 100 dB SPL peak.

The widest gap on the list is the Audio-Technica ATH-R70X: ddHiFi TC35Air has +10 dB of headroom there against +5 dB. 5 dB is about 3.1 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for ddHiFi TC35Air and Kiwi Ears Allegro Pro because neither maker publishes no output noise figure.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsddHiFi TC35Air headroomKiwi Ears Allegro Pro headroomddHiFi TC35Air hissKiwi Ears Allegro Pro hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+32 dB+27 dBnot publishednot published
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+12 dB+7 dBnot publishednot published
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+21 dB+16 dBnot publishednot published
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+16 dB+11 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+13 dB+8 dBnot publishednot published
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+10 dB+5 dBnot publishednot published
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+5 dB+0 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW+3 dB-1 dBnot publishednot published

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Kiwi Ears Allegro Pro costs $14 more than the ddHiFi TC35Air, and on these three axes the money buys nothing: among the 567 models here there is not one that the Kiwi Ears Allegro Pro handles and the ddHiFi TC35Air does not — not on power, not on the one-eighth rule, not on hiss. The traffic runs the other way: the cheaper ddHiFi TC35Air drives 10 models to 100 dB that the Kiwi Ears Allegro Pro does not.

Only published figures count here; blank axes are counted separately.

Both pages in full

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