Every number on this site is supposed to be traceable to something the manufacturer published. Keeping that promise meant recording, for each product, whether the figure existed at all. This page is what fell out of that: a count, per manufacturer, of how often the answer was yes.
It is not a quality ranking. A maker can document everything and build something dull, or document nothing and build something wonderful. It is a measure of one narrow thing — whether you can check a claim before you buy.
One fact per pair of headphones: does the maker print a sensitivity figure with a reference unit attached — per milliwatt, per volt, or at a stated drive voltage? A decibel number with no reference unit is not a specification, because the two readings are about five decibels apart at 300 Ω and eighteen at 16 Ω.
Three facts per source: is there a power figure traceable to something they published, an output impedance, and a noise figure? Each of those decides a different half of whether a source suits a particular pair of headphones.
The count below is strict in two ways. A figure taken from an independent measurement rather than a document counts as not published, however good the measurement. And a maker who publishes power at one load only still counts as having published power — the derivation from there is this site’s problem, not theirs.
| Manufacturer | In the database | From their own material | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 64 Audio | 10 hp | 10 / 10 | 100% |
| Chord | 3 src | 9 / 9 | 100% |
| Etymotic | 6 hp | 6 / 6 | 100% |
| JDS Labs | 4 src | 12 / 12 | 100% |
| Lake People | 2 src | 6 / 6 | 100% |
| Shure | 15 hp | 15 / 15 | 100% |
| SPL | 3 src | 9 / 9 | 100% |
| Symphonium | 7 hp | 7 / 7 | 100% |
| Violectric | 3 src | 9 / 9 | 100% |
| ZMF | 11 hp | 11 / 11 | 100% |
| Audio-Technica | 27 hp | 26 / 27 | 96% |
| FiiO | 13 hp + 30 src | 99 / 103 | 96% |
| Audeze | 21 hp | 20 / 21 | 95% |
| Fostex | 17 hp | 16 / 17 | 94% |
| Focal | 16 hp | 15 / 16 | 94% |
| AKG | 14 hp | 13 / 14 | 93% |
| Dan Clark Audio | 11 hp | 10 / 11 | 91% |
| Truthear | 8 hp + 1 src | 10 / 11 | 91% |
| Sennheiser | 28 hp | 25 / 28 | 89% |
| Moondrop | 36 hp + 3 src | 40 / 45 | 89% |
| Topping | 6 src | 16 / 18 | 89% |
| Austrian Audio | 8 hp | 7 / 8 | 88% |
| RME | 8 src | 21 / 24 | 88% |
| Grado | 15 hp | 13 / 15 | 87% |
| Benchmark | 2 src | 5 / 6 | 83% |
| Meze | 17 hp | 14 / 17 | 82% |
| Arturia | 4 src | 8 / 12 | 67% |
| Astell&Kern | 4 src | 8 / 12 | 67% |
| Ferrum | 2 src | 4 / 6 | 67% |
| IK | 2 src | 4 / 6 | 67% |
| Matrix | 2 src | 4 / 6 | 67% |
| Roland | 3 src | 6 / 9 | 67% |
| Sony | 12 hp + 4 src | 16 / 24 | 67% |
| SSL | 3 src | 6 / 9 | 67% |
| Tanchjim | 6 hp + 3 src | 10 / 15 | 67% |
| Tascam | 2 src | 4 / 6 | 67% |
| Zoom | 4 src | 8 / 12 | 67% |
| Schiit | 15 src | 29 / 45 | 64% |
| Shanling | 11 src | 21 / 33 | 64% |
| SMSL | 11 src | 21 / 33 | 64% |
| iBasso | 10 src | 19 / 30 | 63% |
| Focusrite | 7 src | 13 / 21 | 62% |
| Audient | 11 src | 19 / 33 | 58% |
| Apogee | 3 src | 5 / 9 | 56% |
| Fosi Audio | 3 src | 5 / 9 | 56% |
| HiBy | 5 src | 8 / 15 | 53% |
| Aune | 2 src | 3 / 6 | 50% |
| Campfire Audio | 10 hp | 5 / 10 | 50% |
| Creative | 2 src | 3 / 6 | 50% |
| iFi | 8 src | 12 / 24 | 50% |
| Luxury & Precision | 2 src | 3 / 6 | 50% |
| Cayin | 5 src | 7 / 15 | 47% |
| Dunu | 12 hp + 1 src | 7 / 15 | 47% |
| Kiwi Ears | 12 hp + 2 src | 8 / 18 | 44% |
| MOTU | 4 src | 5 / 12 | 42% |
| EPZ | 4 hp + 2 src | 4 / 10 | 40% |
| Beyerdynamic | 36 hp | 13 / 36 | 36% |
| ddHiFi | 7 src | 7 / 21 | 33% |
| HeadAmp | 2 src | 2 / 6 | 33% |
| Philips | 6 hp | 2 / 6 | 33% |
| PreSonus | 4 src | 4 / 12 | 33% |
| Qudelix | 2 src | 2 / 6 | 33% |
| Steinberg | 4 src | 4 / 12 | 33% |
| Tempotec | 3 src | 3 / 9 | 33% |
| Universal Audio | 5 src | 5 / 15 | 33% |
| xDuoo | 4 src | 4 / 12 | 33% |
| Simgot | 7 hp | 2 / 7 | 29% |
| Questyle | 3 src | 2 / 9 | 22% |
| Hidizs | 8 hp + 5 src | 5 / 23 | 22% |
| Geshelli | 2 src | 1 / 6 | 17% |
| Gustard | 2 src | 1 / 6 | 17% |
| Tangzu | 7 hp | 1 / 7 | 14% |
| HiFiMAN | 28 hp + 2 src | 2 / 34 | 6% |
| Apple | 2 src | 0 / 6 | 0% |
| Little Dot | 2 src | 0 / 6 | 0% |
| STAX | 6 hp | 0 / 6 | 0% |
| Thieaudio | 12 hp | 0 / 12 | 0% |
Makers with fewer than six countable facts are left out of the ranking, because one product with one missing figure would put them at the bottom of it. They are listed below and have pages of their own.
One caveat the table cannot express: a maker whose entire catalogue is electrostatic — STAX and Warwick Acoustics in this list — scores zero here because electrostatics are specified as a sound pressure at a bias voltage of a hundred volts or more, which is not a sensitivity in the sense this count understands. It is a limit of the question, not a verdict on the maker.
7Hz · Abyss · AFUL · Aiyima · ART · Bang & Olufsen · BLON · Bottlehead · Bowers & Wilkins · Bryston · Burson · Cambridge Audio · CCA · Denon · DITA Audio · Drop · EarMen · EarStudio · Elysian Acoustic Labs · Final Audio · Grace Design · HarmonicDyne · HEDD Audio · Hisenior · Holo Audio · JadeAudio · JBL · Juzear · Kefine · Kennerton · Kinera · Koss · KZ · Letshuoer · Lotoo · Loxjie · Lynx · M-Audio · Marantz · Marshall · McIntosh · Merging · Naim · Neumann · NiceHCK · OLLO Audio · Onix · Oppo · Oriolus · Penon · qdc · Rode · Rupert Neve · Samson · Sendy Audio · Singxer · Sivga · Softears · Soncoz · Spirit Torino · Status Audio · Superlux · Surfans · Takstar · Technics · THX · Tin HiFi · Tripowin · TRN · Unique Melody · V-MODA · Verum Audio · Vision Ears · Warwick Acoustics · Wells Audio · Westone · WiiM · Woo Audio · Yamaha
Nothing here is a new measurement or a new claim. Each row is a tally of what is already recorded on the product pages, where the document behind every figure is linked. The reasoning behind the labels is on the method page, and the specification contradictions that turned up along the way are written out on the spec sheet audit. The whole thing downloads as CSV and JSON.