Will a Bluetooth receiver drive the Sennheiser HD 600?

On power: 12 of the 13 Bluetooth receivers here reach 100 dB SPL on the Sennheiser HD 600. It needs 6.6 mW at its 300Ω, and 1 of them do not get there.

Power is one of three questions and the one that goes wrong least often. The other two — whether the source’s output impedance leaves the frequency response alone, and whether you will hear its noise floor — are answered further down, separately, because a source can pass one and fail another.

Whether it gets loud enough

The 1 that fall short are FiiO BTR11. The closest of them, the FiiO BTR11, delivers 3.0 mW into 300Ω against the 6.6 mW needed — 3.4 dB short.

The cheapest one that does reach it is the Fosi Audio N3 at $50, which delivers 15 mW into 300Ω — 4 dB of headroom over the 6.6 mW this headphone needs for 100 dB SPL.

100 dB SPL is a peak level, not a listening level. If you listen at 85 dB the same headphone needs 0.21 mW, which is 15 dB less, and the answer above changes for most of the category. The model page has the full ladder.

Whether it changes how they sound

Under the one-eighth rule the Sennheiser HD 600 wants a source below 37.50Ω. Of the 7 Bluetooth receivers here that publish an output impedance, 7 are under it and 0 are not.

The other 6 publish nothing at all on this, so they are not on either side of that count. This site leaves them blank rather than assuming a figure.

Whether you will hear it between tracks

Hiss depends on the source’s own noise floor and on how sensitive the headphone is. At 91.8 dB/mW and 300Ω, the Sennheiser HD 600 turns one microvolt of source noise into about -23 dB SPL — and the threshold where that stops being noticeable in a quiet room is around 20 dB SPL.

Of the 6 Bluetooth receivers here that publish a noise figure, 6 stay below that threshold with this headphone and 0 cross it.

The remaining 7 publish no noise figure, so they cannot be placed on either side.

The 12 best matches in this category

SourcePriceInto 300ΩOutput impedanceHiss in thesePower verdict
Shanling UP6$19967 mWnot publishednot publishedComfortable
Fosi Audio N3$5015 mWnot publishednot publishedEnough
FiiO BTR15$10915 mW1 Ω-17 dB SPLEnough
Qudelix 5K$10913 mWnot publishednot publishedEnough
FiiO BTR17$19930 mW1 Ω-13 dB SPLEnough
FiiO BTR7$19918 mW1.2 Ω-13 dB SPLEnough
iFi GO blu$21918 mW1 Ωnot publishedEnough
FiiO BTR13$5910.0 mW0.6 Ω-23 dB SPLMarginal
EarStudio ES100 MK2$9010.0 mWnot publishednot publishedMarginal
FiiO BTR5 2021$1098.5 mW1 Ω-17 dB SPLMarginal
HiBy W5$1098.5 mWnot publishednot publishedMarginal
Shanling UP5$17912 mWnot publishednot publishedMarginal

Sorted by how many of the three questions the source answers well, then by price. A blank in a column is a blank in the manufacturer’s own documentation, not a zero.

The same headphone, other kinds of source

The Sennheiser HD 600 on other categories: USB dongles · portable players · desktop amplifiers · desktop DAC/amps · audio interfaces.

The Sennheiser HD 600 page has every source in the database against this headphone, and the matcher takes your own numbers.