ddHiFi TC44Grip vs Qudelix T71

Both are dongles, $160 against $229. This page puts them side by side on the only three things a maker can be held to — power, output impedance and noise — and then asks the question that actually matters: which headphones do they treat differently?

The Qudelix T71 reaches 100 dB on 566 of the 567 models here, the ddHiFi TC44Grip on 557.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationddHiFi TC44GripQudelix T71
Power into 32Ω80 mW500 mW
Power into 150Ω17 mW107 mW
Power into 300Ω8.5 mW53 mW
Power into 600Ω4.3 mW27 mW
Output impedancenot published0.3 Ω unverified
Output noisenot published2.5 µV unverified
Price$160$229
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
557566

A figure marked not published is missing from the maker’s own material, which is not the same as being good or bad. Where one of these two publishes a number and the other does not, the comparison on that axis cannot be made at all — and saying so is more useful than guessing.

Where each power figure comes from

LoadddHiFi TC44GripQudelix T71
32 ΩPublishedUpper bound
150 ΩDerivedUpper bound
300 ΩDerivedUpper bound
600 ΩDerivedUpper bound

These two columns are not the same kind of number, and that matters more than the gap between them. ddHiFi TC44Grip publishes a power rating (at 32 Ω); Qudelix T71 publishes no power figure at any load, only a maximum output voltage, so every milliwatt in its column is a ceiling worked out from that voltage.

A ceiling assumes the amplifier holds that voltage into the load, and nothing on Qudelix T71’s own sheet says it does. It is the most flattering reading available, and it is used here only because the alternative is a blank. Where the Qudelix T71 column looks the stronger of the two, treat the difference as unproven rather than measured. 24 of the 280 sources here are in that position, with no published power rating at any load.

What each of these labels means, and why a derived figure is still worth printing, is set out in how this data was built.

The headphones that tell them apart

9 headphones reach 100 dB on the Qudelix T71 but not on the ddHiFi TC44Grip — HiFiMAN Susvara, Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA, 6 more.

557 of the 567 models here reach 100 dB on both. That is a power count and nothing more; whether either source suits a given headphone also depends on the two lines above.

Headroom and hiss on 8 models, both sources

The counts above say how many models the two treat differently. This says by how much. The same 8 headphones appear on every page of this kind, ordered from the easiest to drive to the hardest, so a row can be read across pages as well as across columns. Headroom is at a 100 dB SPL peak.

The widest gap on the list is the Sennheiser HD 600: Qudelix T71 has +9 dB of headroom there against +1 dB. 8 dB is about 6.3 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for ddHiFi TC44Grip and Qudelix T71 because neither maker publishes no output noise figure. That is a gap in the specification, not a quiet amplifier, and it is left blank here rather than filled with a plausible number.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsddHiFi TC44Grip headroomQudelix T71 headroomddHiFi TC44Grip hissQudelix T71 hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+28 dB+35 dBnot publishednot published
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+8 dB+15 dBnot publishednot published
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+17 dB+25 dBnot publishednot published
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+12 dB+20 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+9 dB+17 dBnot publishednot published
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+5 dB+13 dBnot publishednot published
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+1 dB+9 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW-1 dB+7 dBnot publishednot published

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Qudelix T71 costs $69 more than the ddHiFi TC44Grip. Out of the 567 models here, that difference buys 9 more models driven to 100 dB.

Nothing runs the other way: there is no axis here on which the cheaper of the two does better.

Everything in this paragraph counts only figures the two makers published. An advantage on an axis one of them leaves blank cannot be counted, and is not counted — how often that happens is its own page.

Both pages in full

Each has a page of its own with every power figure traced to what the maker published and a full headphone list: ddHiFi TC44Grip and Qudelix T71. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.

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