FiiO KA13 vs FiiO KA15

Both are dongles, $79 against $109. 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 KA15 reaches 100 dB on 566 of the 567 models here, the FiiO KA13 on 555.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationFiiO KA13FiiO KA15
Power into 32Ω50 mW180 mW
Power into 150Ω10 mW38 mW
Power into 300Ω5.0 mW19 mW
Power into 600Ω2.5 mW9.5 mW
Output impedance1.7 Ω0.8 Ω
Output noise2.5 µV1.7 µV
Price$79$109
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
555566

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

11 headphones reach 100 dB on the FiiO KA15 but not on the FiiO KA13 — Beyerdynamic DT 880 Edition (600Ω), Beyerdynamic DT 990 Edition (600Ω), HiFiMAN HE-6se V2, 8 more.

55 headphones are left alone by the FiiO KA15 under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the FiiO KA13 (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Ocean, 52 more).

8 headphones stay below the audible-hiss threshold on the FiiO KA15 but cross it on the FiiO KA13 (64 Audio Fourte, Campfire Audio Andromeda 10, Campfire Audio Andromeda 2023, 5 more).

555 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 KA13 and FiiO KA15. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.