A sensitive in-ear is the easiest thing in audio to drive and the hardest thing to drive quietly. The same sensitivity that lets a phone reach deafening volume also turns an amplifier’s own noise floor into audible hiss between tracks, and no power figure anywhere warns you about it.
The last column counts how many of the 71 sources that publish a noise figure leave this in-ear below 20 dB SPL of hiss — roughly the level at which it stops being noticeable in a quiet room. The other 209 sources here published nothing about noise, so they cannot be counted either way; that is not a verdict on them, it is a gap in what their makers printed.
One thing to read this list with. Every position on it is calculated from sensitivity, and 77 of these 222 models have a sensitivity figure whose reference unit the maker never printed. The number is read as per milliwatt here, because that is the commoner convention on a spec sheet that omits the unit — but if one of them meant per volt, that model is less sensitive than this list assumes, and by how much depends on its impedance: from 12.2 dB at 60Ω to 21.0 dB at 8Ω across the ones affected here. Each model page says which case it is in and shows both readings. A list that does not mention this is not more accurate than this one; it is only quieter about the same problem.
| In-ear | Impedance | Sensitivity | Needs for 100 dB | Sources that stay silent on it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simgot EA500 | 16 Ω | 123.0 dB/mW | 0.01 mW | 5 of 71 |
| Tanchjim EA FORCE | 17 Ω | 120.0 dB/mW | 0.01 mW | 14 of 71 |
| Shure AONIC 5 | 36 Ω | 119.0 dB/mW | 0.01 mW | 39 of 71 |
| Shure SE535 | 36 Ω | 119.0 dB/mW | 0.01 mW | 39 of 71 |
| Shure SE315 | 27 Ω | 116.0 dB/mW | 0.03 mW | 43 of 71 |
| Campfire Audio Clara | 13.3 Ω | 115.3 dB/mW | 0.03 mW | 32 of 71 |
| AFUL Performer 8 | 30 Ω | 115.0 dB/mW | 0.03 mW | 49 of 71 |
| 64 Audio Fourte | 10 Ω | 114.0 dB/mW | 0.04 mW | 33 of 71 |
| EPZ K5 | 28 Ω | 114.0 dB/mW | 0.04 mW | 53 of 71 |
| KZ AS16 Pro | 18 Ω | 114.0 dB/mW | 0.04 mW | 43 of 71 |
| Shure SE846 | 9 Ω | 114.0 dB/mW | 0.04 mW | 30 of 71 |
| TRN Conch | 30 Ω | 114.0 dB/mW | 0.04 mW | 53 of 71 |
| Dunu Vulkan 2 | 35 Ω | 113.0 dB/mW | 0.05 mW | 56 of 71 |
| Hidizs MK10 ArcSonics | 32 Ω | 113.0 dB/mW | 0.05 mW | 56 of 71 |
| TRN MT4 Pro | 40 Ω | 113.0 dB/mW | 0.05 mW | 56 of 71 |
The table shows the first 15 of 222. The rest are in the full headphone database, where every figure is labelled with where it came from.
345 of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database are not on this list because it covers one part of the catalogue rather than all of it. Nothing was excluded for failing a test and nothing is missing a figure; this one is a category, not a ranking threshold.
This is not a ranking of sound quality and cannot be. It sorts one number that manufacturers printed, and manufacturers do not print anything about how their products sound. Every row links to that product’s own page, where each figure is labelled with the document it came from.
Quietest sources for sensitive in-ears · Lowest published output impedance · Most power into 300 Ω · Sources that drive everything here · Audio interfaces as headphone amplifiers · Sources under $100 · Hardest headphones to drive · Quietest desktop sources · What balanced actually gains · Portable players by power · Most power per dollar · High-impedance headphones