iFi iCAN Pro vs Rupert Neve RNHP

Short answer

More power: the iFi iCAN Pro, with 4.00 W into 32 Ω; the Rupert Neve RNHP has 262 mW. The iFi iCAN Pro drives 1 headphone to 100 dB that the Rupert Neve RNHP cannot (Symphonium Titan).
Hiss with sensitive IEMs: no headphone here hisses audibly on one and not on the other.
Price: the iFi iCAN Pro costs $99 less and gives up nothing on power, output impedance or hiss against the 567 headphones here. Whatever the extra money for the Rupert Neve RNHP buys, it is not these three numbers.

Both are desktop amplifiers, $600 against $699.

The iFi iCAN Pro reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here, the Rupert Neve RNHP on 566.

Side by side

Every published figure, next to each other

Specification	iFi iCAN Pro	Rupert Neve RNHP
Power into 32Ω	4.0 W	262 mW
Power into 150Ω	1.2 W	175 mW
Power into 300Ω	600 mW	88 mW
Power into 600Ω	300 mW	44 mW
Output impedance	0.5 Ω unverified	0.08 Ω
Output noise	25 µV unverified	8.03 µV
Price	$600	$699
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on out of 567	567	566

How solid these numbers are

Where each power figure comes from

Load	iFi iCAN Pro	Rupert Neve RNHP
32 Ω	Unverified	Derived
150 Ω	Unverified	Published
300 Ω	Unverified	Derived
600 Ω	Unverified	Derived

iFi iCAN Pro publishes no electrical specification at all. That is true of 10 of the 280 sources here, and the figures in that column come from independent measurement rather than from a maker document — which is not worse, but it is not the same thing, and it cannot be checked against anything the maker will stand behind.

The Rupert Neve RNHP column does stand on a power rating its maker printed, at one of these four loads at least. Reading the two straight across sets one kind of claim against another, and nobody has written down the conditions of both side by side.

What the labels mean.

What separates them

The headphones that tell them apart

1 headphone reaches 100 dB on the iFi iCAN Pro but not on the Rupert Neve RNHP — Symphonium Titan.

566 of the 567 models here reach 100 dB on both.

On real headphones

Headroom and hiss on 8 models, both sources

Headroom is at a 100 dB SPL peak.

The widest gap on the list is the HiFiMAN HE400se: iFi iCAN Pro has +26 dB of headroom there against +15 dB. 11 dB is about 13 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for iFi iCAN Pro because that maker publishes no output noise figure.

Headphone	Impedance	Needs	iFi iCAN Pro headroom	Rupert Neve RNHP headroom	iFi iCAN Pro hiss	Rupert Neve RNHP hiss
Shure SE846	9 Ω	0.04 mW	+45 dB	+35 dB	not published	33 dB
Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020	9 Ω	4.0 mW	+25 dB	+15 dB	not published	13 dB
Audeze LCD-2 Classic	70 Ω	0.79 mW	+34 dB	+25 dB	not published	11 dB
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)	250 Ω	0.63 mW	+31 dB	+22 dB	not published	6 dB
HiFiMAN HE400se	25 Ω	7.9 mW	+26 dB	+15 dB	not published	5 dB
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X	470 Ω	1.6 mW	+24 dB	+15 dB	not published	-1 dB
Sennheiser HD 600	300 Ω	6.6 mW	+20 dB	+11 dB	not published	-5 dB
HiFiMAN Susvara	60 Ω	50 mW	+17 dB	+7 dB	not published	-7 dB

What the price difference buys

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Rupert Neve RNHP costs $99 more than the iFi iCAN Pro, and on these three axes the money buys nothing: among the 567 models here there is not one that the Rupert Neve RNHP handles and the iFi iCAN Pro does not — not on power, not on the one-eighth rule, not on hiss. The traffic runs the other way: the cheaper iFi iCAN Pro drives one model to 100 dB that the Rupert Neve RNHP does not.

Only published figures count here; blank axes are counted separately.

Each has a page of its own with a full headphone list and the provenance of every figure — worth opening here, because iFi iCAN Pro has published no electrical specification at all and everything above comes from independent measurement: iFi iCAN Pro and Rupert Neve RNHP.