FiiO KA11 vs FiiO SnowSky Tiny A

Both are dongles, $29 against $22. 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 FiiO KA11 reaches 100 dB on 566 of the 567 models here, the FiiO SnowSky Tiny A on 550.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationFiiO KA11FiiO SnowSky Tiny A
Power into 32Ω200 mW34 mW
Power into 150Ω43 mW7.3 mW
Power into 300Ω22 mW3.6 mW
Power into 600Ω11 mW1.8 mW
Output impedance0.7 Ω0.5 Ω
Output noise1.7 µVnot published
Price$29$22
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
566550

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

16 headphones reach 100 dB on the FiiO KA11 but not on the FiiO SnowSky Tiny A — Beyerdynamic DT 880 Edition (600Ω), Beyerdynamic DT 990 Edition (600Ω), HiFiMAN HE-6se V2, 13 more.

3 headphones are left alone by the FiiO SnowSky Tiny A under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the FiiO KA11 (Campfire Audio Chimera, Moondrop Armature Art 12, Softears Volume).

550 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: FiiO KA11 and FiiO SnowSky Tiny A. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.