Oriole vs P-II: which needs more amplifier?

The Sivga Oriole is 32Ω at 108.0 dB (no reference unit printed); the Sivga P-II is 32Ω at 98.0 dB (no reference unit printed). This page covers what they ask of an amplifier, not how they sound.

The P-II needs 10.0 dB more than the Oriole to reach the same loudness — 1.6 mW against 0.16 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationOrioleP-II
Impedance32 Ω32 Ω
Sensitivity108.0 dB98.0 dB
Sensitivity (voltage)122.9 dB/V112.9 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.16 mW1.6 mW
Voltage for 100 dB71 mV0.23 V
Current for 100 dB2.2 mA7.0 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
4.00 Ω4.00 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

One caution before reading the rows. Sivga Oriole and Sivga P-II 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.

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.

3 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the P-II but cross it with the Oriole (FiiO BTR11, FiiO K11 R2R, Rupert Neve RNHP).

280 of the 280 sources here reach 100 dB on both.

What each one needs from 80 to 105 dB

The P-II is more demanding than 63% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the Oriole than 23%.

dB SPLOriole powerOriole voltageP-II powerP-II voltage
801.6 µW7 mV0.02 mW23 mV
855.0 µW13 mV0.05 mW40 mV
900.02 mW23 mV0.16 mW71 mV
950.05 mW40 mV0.50 mW0.13 V
1000.16 mW71 mV1.6 mW0.23 V
1050.50 mW0.13 V5.0 mW0.40 V

The cheapest source that satisfies both

SourcePriceHeadroom, OrioleHeadroom, P-IIOutput impedanceNoise
JadeAudio JA11$2022.8 dB12.8 dB0.5 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO KA11$2931.0 dB21.0 dB0.7 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO BTR13$5928.0 dB18.0 dB0.6 Ω1.0 µV

Of the 280 sources here, 280 reach 100 dB on both. 66 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 66 is the JadeAudio JA11, at $20. It leaves 22.8 dB of headroom on the Oriole and 12.8 dB on the P-II, its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 4.00 Ω for both, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 12 dB and 22 dB below the 20 dB SPL this site treats as the point where a quiet room stops hiding it.

Try any other source.

What each sheet prints, and what it is worth

ModelAs printedToleranceStandard
Oriole20Hz - 20KHznot printednot printed
P-IInothing printed——

Sivga prints 20Hz - 20KHz for the Oriole and nothing at all for the P-II.

P-II: Sivga’s page for the P-II has a SPECIFICATION block with four tabs — description, introduction, parameters, packaging — and the parameters tab is empty. Their pages for other models fill that same tab with a table that includes a frequency response; this one has nothing in it.

So one side of this comparison has a frequency-response number and the other does not — which changes less than it looks. The range printed for the Oriole comes with no tolerance beside it, and a range without a ±dB figure says nothing about how loud the headphone is at either end of it: thirty decibels down at the bottom and the sentence would still be true. On the only reading that would have made it a specification, the two sheets say the same amount: nothing.

Not a measurement; maker by maker.

Both pages in full

Both have a page of their own. In full: Sivga Oriole and Sivga P-II. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones Sivga never published — what that maker publishes, counted.

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