The Kiwi Ears KE4 is 28Ω at 102.0 dB (no reference unit printed); the Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite is 16Ω at 112.0 dB (no reference unit printed). This page covers what they ask of an amplifier, not how they sound.
The KE4 needs 10.0 dB more than the Orchestra Lite to reach the same loudness — 0.63 mW against 0.06 mW.
| Specification | KE4 | Orchestra Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Impedance | 28 Ω | 16 Ω |
| Sensitivity | 102.0 dB | 112.0 dB |
| Sensitivity (voltage) | 117.5 dB/V | 130.0 dB/V |
| Power for 100 dB | 0.63 mW | 0.06 mW |
| Voltage for 100 dB | 0.13 V | 32 mV |
| Current for 100 dB | 4.7 mA | 2.0 mA |
| Highest source impedance that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule) | 3.50 Ω | 2.00 Ω |
| Sources that reach 100 dB out of 280 | 280 | 280 |
One caution before reading the rows. Kiwi Ears KE4 and Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite printed a decibel figure with no reference unit, so this page reads it as per milliwatt. If it is really per volt, each of them needs far more than the table says. Why the two readings differ by so much.
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.
23 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the KE4 but cross it with the Orchestra Lite (FiiO BTR11, Fosi Audio SK02, FiiO K11 R2R, 20 more).
280 of the 280 sources here reach 100 dB on both.
The KE4 is more demanding than 42% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the Orchestra Lite than 4%.
| dB SPL | KE4 power | KE4 voltage | Orchestra Lite power | Orchestra Lite voltage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | 6.3 µW | 13 mV | 0.6 µW | 3 mV |
| 85 | 0.02 mW | 24 mV | 2.0 µW | 6 mV |
| 90 | 0.06 mW | 42 mV | 6.3 µW | 10 mV |
| 95 | 0.20 mW | 75 mV | 0.02 mW | 18 mV |
| 100 | 0.63 mW | 0.13 V | 0.06 mW | 32 mV |
| 105 | 2.0 mW | 0.24 V | 0.20 mW | 57 mV |
| Source | Price | Headroom, KE4 | Headroom, Orchestra Lite | Output impedance | Noise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JadeAudio JA11 | $20 | 16.2 dB | 23.8 dB | 0.5 Ω | 1.7 µV |
| FiiO KA11 | $29 | 25.1 dB | 35.9 dB | 0.7 Ω | 1.7 µV |
| FiiO BTR13 | $59 | 22.1 dB | 32.8 dB | 0.6 Ω | 1.0 µV |
Of the 280 sources here, 280 reach 100 dB on both. 49 of them also publish an output impedance low enough for both under the one-eighth rule and a noise figure that stays below the audible-hiss threshold with both.
The cheapest of the 49 is the JadeAudio JA11, at $20. It leaves 16.2 dB of headroom on the KE4 and 23.8 dB on the Orchestra Lite, its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 3.50 Ω and 2.00 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 18 dB and 5 dB below the 20 dB SPL this site treats as the point where a quiet room stops hiding it.
| Model | As printed | Tolerance | Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| KE4 | nothing printed | — | — |
| Orchestra Lite | nothing printed | — | — |
Kiwi Ears prints the same thing for both the KE4 and the Orchestra Lite: nothing at all.
Orchestra Lite: The spec table prints impedance, sensitivity, drivers and cable only. The page describes the curve in prose ("sub-bass peaking at 8 dB from 20 Hz to 200 Hz") and shows a graph, but prints no frequency range.
There is nothing here to compare, and that is worth saying plainly rather than filling the gap with somebody else’s measurement. Of the 578 models checked against a maker document so far, 490 carry a printed range and only 58 of those print the ±dB tolerance that would make a range mean anything.
Not a measurement; maker by maker.
Both have a page of their own. In full: Kiwi Ears KE4 and Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones Kiwi Ears never published — what that maker publishes, counted.