AKG K702 vs Philips SHP9600: which needs more amplifier?

The AKG K702 is 62Ω at 92.9 dB/mW; the Philips SHP9600 is 32Ω at 102.0 dB (no reference unit printed). This page is only about what they ask of an amplifier — not how they sound, which no specification on either sheet can tell you.

The AKG K702 needs 9.1 dB more than the Philips SHP9600 to reach the same loudness — 5.1 mW against 0.63 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationAKG K702Philips SHP9600
Impedance62 Ω32 Ω
Sensitivity92.9 dB/mW102.0 dB
Sensitivity (voltage)105.0 dB/V116.9 dB/V
Power for 100 dB5.1 mW0.63 mW
Voltage for 100 dB0.56 V0.14 V
Current for 100 dB9.1 mA4.4 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
7.75 Ω4.00 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

One caution before reading the rows. Philips SHP9600 printed a decibel figure with no reference unit, so this page reads it as per milliwatt. If it is really per volt, that model needs far more than the table says. Why the two readings differ by so much.

Where the two part company

Every source in the database that drives one of them drives the other. On power, the choice between these two changes nothing about what amplifier you need.

1 source is low enough in output impedance for the AKG K702 under the one-eighth rule but not for the Philips SHP9600 (Shanling H5).

280 of the 280 sources here reach 100 dB on both. That count is about power only — the output-impedance and hiss lines above are separate questions, and a source can pass this one and fail those.

Both pages in full

Each model has a page of its own with the full source list, the hiss estimate and the provenance of every figure above: AKG K702 and Philips SHP9600. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones AKG and Philips never published — what AKG publishes and what Philips publishes, both counted.