K7XX (Drop) vs K872: which needs more amplifier?

The AKG K7XX (Drop) is 62Ω at 93.0 dB (no figure from the maker at all); the AKG K872 is 36Ω at 97.6 dB/mW. 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 K7XX (Drop) needs 4.6 dB more than the K872 to reach the same loudness — 5.0 mW against 1.7 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationK7XX (Drop)K872
Impedance62 Ω36 Ω
Sensitivity93.0 dB97.6 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)105.1 dB/V112.0 dB/V
Power for 100 dB5.0 mW1.7 mW
Voltage for 100 dB0.56 V0.25 V
Current for 100 dB9.0 mA6.9 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
7.75 Ω4.50 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

One caution before reading the rows. For AKG K7XX (Drop) the maker publishes no sensitivity figure at all. The number in the table was collected when this database was first built and has never been traced to a manufacturer document, so treat every row below it as an estimate rather than a specification.

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 K7XX (Drop) under the one-eighth rule but not for the K872 (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 K7XX (Drop) and AKG K872. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones AKG never published — what that maker publishes, counted.