FiiO KA11 vs JadeAudio JA11

Both are dongles, $29 against $20. 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 JadeAudio JA11 on 547.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationFiiO KA11JadeAudio JA11
Power into 32Ω200 mW30 mW
Power into 150Ω43 mW6.4 mW
Power into 300Ω22 mW3.2 mW
Power into 600Ω11 mW1.6 mW
Output impedance0.7 Ω0.5 Ω
Output noise1.7 µV1.7 µV
Price$29$20
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
566547

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

19 headphones reach 100 dB on the FiiO KA11 but not on the JadeAudio JA11 — Beyerdynamic DT 880 Edition (600Ω), Beyerdynamic DT 990 Edition (600Ω), HiFiMAN HE-6se V2, 16 more.

3 headphones are left alone by the JadeAudio JA11 under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the FiiO KA11 (Campfire Audio Chimera, Moondrop Armature Art 12, Softears Volume).

547 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 JadeAudio JA11. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.