Both are dongles, $79 against $149. 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 KA17 reaches 100 dB on 564 of the 567 models here, the FiiO KA13 on 555.
| Specification | FiiO KA13 | FiiO KA17 |
|---|---|---|
| Power into 32Ω | 50 mW | 140 mW |
| Power into 150Ω | 10 mW | 34 mW |
| Power into 300Ω | 5.0 mW | 20 mW |
| Power into 600Ω | 2.5 mW | 10.0 mW |
| Output impedance | 1.7 Ω | 1.0 Ω |
| Output noise | 2.5 µV | 2.0 µV |
| Price | $79 | $149 |
| Headphones it reaches 100 dB on out of 567 | 555 | 564 |
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.
9 headphones reach 100 dB on the FiiO KA17 but not on the FiiO KA13 — Beyerdynamic DT 880 Edition (600Ω), Beyerdynamic DT 990 Edition (600Ω), HiFiMAN HE-6se V2, 6 more.
52 headphones are left alone by the FiiO KA17 under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the FiiO KA13 (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Ocean, 49 more).
4 headphones stay below the audible-hiss threshold on the FiiO KA17 but cross it on the FiiO KA13 (Campfire Audio Andromeda 10, Campfire Audio Andromeda 2023, Shure AONIC 5, 1 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.
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 KA17. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.