EarStudio ES100 MK2 vs FiiO BTR5 2021

Short answer

  • More power: the FiiO BTR5 2021, with 80 mW into 32 Ω; the EarStudio ES100 MK2 has 60 mW. The FiiO BTR5 2021 drives 10 headphones to 100 dB that the EarStudio ES100 MK2 cannot (HiFiMAN HE-6se V2, HiFiMAN HE6 Remastered, Moondrop COSMO, 7 more).
  • Hiss with sensitive IEMs: no headphone here hisses audibly on one and not on the other.
  • Price: the FiiO BTR5 2021 costs $19 more; what that buys on these numbers is set out further down, under What the price difference buys.

Both are Bluetooth receivers, $90 against $109.

The FiiO BTR5 2021 reaches 100 dB on 563 of the 567 models here, the EarStudio ES100 MK2 on 553.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationEarStudio ES100 MK2FiiO BTR5 2021
Power into 32Ω60 mW80 mW
Power into 150Ω20 mW17 mW
Power into 300Ω10.0 mW8.5 mW
Power into 600Ω5.0 mW4.3 mW
Output impedance0.5 Ω unverified1.0 Ω
Output noise3 µV unverified2.0 µV
Price$90$109
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
553563

The 4.4 mm or XLR socket, rated on its own

BalancedEarStudio ES100 MK2FiiO BTR5 2021
Socketno separate rating2.5mm
Power into 32Ω—240 mW
Power into 300Ω—26 mW derived
Output impedance—2.0 Ω
Output noise—2.2 µV
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
—565

Only the FiiO BTR5 2021 has a separate balanced rating from its maker; through it, it reaches 100 dB on 565 of the 567 models here. The EarStudio ES100 MK2 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

LoadEarStudio ES100 MK2FiiO BTR5 2021
32 ΩUnverifiedPublished
150 ΩUnverifiedDerived
300 ΩUnverifiedDerived
600 ΩUnverifiedDerived

EarStudio ES100 MK2 publishes no electrical specification at all. That is true of 10 of the 280 sources here, and the figures in that column come from independent measurement rather than from a maker document — which is not worse, but it is not the same thing, and it cannot be checked against anything the maker will stand behind.

The FiiO BTR5 2021 column does stand on a power rating its maker printed, at one of these four loads at least. Reading the two straight across sets one kind of claim against another, and nobody has written down the conditions of both side by side.

What the labels mean.

The headphones that tell them apart

10 headphones reach 100 dB on the FiiO BTR5 2021 but not on the EarStudio ES100 MK2 — HiFiMAN HE-6se V2, HiFiMAN HE6 Remastered, Moondrop COSMO, 7 more.

553 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 Shure SE846: FiiO BTR5 2021 has +31 dB of headroom there against +26 dB. 5 dB is about 3 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for EarStudio ES100 MK2 because that maker publishes no output noise figure.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsEarStudio ES100 MK2 headroomFiiO BTR5 2021 headroomEarStudio ES100 MK2 hissFiiO BTR5 2021 hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+26 dB+31 dBnot published20 dB
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+6 dB+11 dBnot published0 dB
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+16 dB+17 dBnot published-1 dB
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+13 dB+12 dBnot published-6 dB
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+8 dB+10 dBnot published-7 dB
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+6 dB+5 dBnot published-13 dB
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+2 dB+1 dBnot published-17 dB
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW-1 dB-1 dBnot published-19 dB

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The FiiO BTR5 2021 costs $19 more than the EarStudio ES100 MK2. Out of the 567 models here, that difference buys 10 more models driven to 100 dB.

Nothing runs the other way: there is no axis here on which the cheaper of the two does better.

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

Both pages in full

Each has a page of its own with a full headphone list and the provenance of every figure — worth opening here, because EarStudio ES100 MK2 has published no electrical specification at all and everything above comes from independent measurement: EarStudio ES100 MK2 and FiiO BTR5 2021.

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