Both are portable players, $480 against $350. 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 iBasso DX180 reaches 100 dB on 566 of the 567 models here, the Sony NW-A306 on 530.
| Specification | iBasso DX180 | Sony NW-A306 |
|---|---|---|
| Power into 32Ω | 262 mW | 18 mW |
| Power into 150Ω | 56 mW | 3.7 mW |
| Power into 300Ω | 28 mW | 1.9 mW |
| Power into 600Ω | 14 mW | 0.90 mW |
| Output impedance | 0.6 Ω | 1.5 Ω unverified |
| Output noise | not published | 5 µV unverified |
| Price | $480 | $350 |
| Headphones it reaches 100 dB on out of 567 | 566 | 530 |
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.
36 headphones reach 100 dB on the iBasso DX180 but not on the Sony NW-A306 — AKG K612 Pro, Abyss AB-1266 Phi CC, Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC, 33 more.
530 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: iBasso DX180 and Sony NW-A306. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.