FiiO KA3 vs Hidizs SD2

Both are dongles, $79 against $50. 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 KA3 reaches 100 dB on 565 of the 567 models here, the Hidizs SD2 on 556.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationFiiO KA3Hidizs SD2
Power into 32Ω130 mW70 mW
Power into 150Ω28 mW15 mW
Power into 300Ω14 mW7.5 mW
Power into 600Ω7.0 mW3.7 mW
Output impedance0.5 Ωnot published
Output noise1.7 µVnot published
Price$79$50
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
565556

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

9 headphones reach 100 dB on the FiiO KA3 but not on the Hidizs SD2 — HiFiMAN Susvara, Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA 2, 6 more.

556 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 KA3 and Hidizs SD2. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.