Both are desktop amplifiers, $199 against $176. 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 iFi Zen CAN reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here, the Little Dot MK II on 560.
| Specification | iFi Zen CAN | Little Dot MK II |
|---|---|---|
| Power into 32Ω | 1.6 W | 100 mW |
| Power into 150Ω | 375 mW | 214 mW |
| Power into 300Ω | 190 mW | 300 mW |
| Power into 600Ω | 98 mW | 150 mW |
| Output impedance | 0.5 Ω unverified | not published |
| Output noise | 1.5 µV unverified | not published |
| Price | $199 | $176 |
| Headphones it reaches 100 dB on out of 567 | 567 | 560 |
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.
| Load | iFi Zen CAN | Little Dot MK II |
|---|---|---|
| 32 Ω | Published | Published |
| 150 Ω | Derived | Derived |
| 300 Ω | Derived | Published |
| 600 Ω | Published | Derived |
Both makers publish a power rating, which is less common than the table above makes it look: of the 280 sources here, 209 publish a figure at at least one load and only 2 publish one at all four. iFi Zen CAN publishes at 32 Ω and at 600 Ω; Little Dot MK II at 32 Ω and at 300 Ω. Every other row is worked out from those — between two published loads, or beyond them holding voltage constant, which understates rather than flatters.
So the two columns are not equally firm row by row: at 600 Ω only the iFi Zen CAN figure is the maker’s own and at 300 Ω only the Little Dot MK II figure is the maker’s own. On those rows the derived number is the one to doubt first.
What each of these labels means, and why a derived figure is still worth printing, is set out in how this data was built.
7 headphones reach 100 dB on the iFi Zen CAN but not on the Little Dot MK II — Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA, Moondrop PARA 2, 4 more.
560 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.
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 HiFiMAN HE400se: iFi Zen CAN has +22 dB of headroom there against +10 dB. 12 dB is about 16 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.
The hiss columns are empty for iFi Zen CAN and Little Dot MK II 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.
| Headphone | Impedance | Needs | iFi Zen CAN headroom | Little Dot MK II headroom | iFi Zen CAN hiss | Little Dot MK II hiss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shure SE846 | 9 Ω | 0.04 mW | +41 dB | +28 dB | not published | not published |
| Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020 | 9 Ω | 4.0 mW | +21 dB | +8 dB | not published | not published |
| Audeze LCD-2 Classic | 70 Ω | 0.79 mW | +30 dB | +22 dB | not published | not published |
| Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω) | 250 Ω | 0.63 mW | +26 dB | +26 dB | not published | not published |
| HiFiMAN HE400se | 25 Ω | 7.9 mW | +22 dB | +10 dB | not published | not published |
| Audio-Technica ATH-R70X | 470 Ω | 1.6 mW | +19 dB | +21 dB | not published | not published |
| Sennheiser HD 600 | 300 Ω | 6.6 mW | +15 dB | +17 dB | not published | not published |
| HiFiMAN Susvara | 60 Ω | 50 mW | +13 dB | +4 dB | not published | not published |
The iFi Zen CAN costs $23 more than the Little Dot MK II. Out of the 567 models here, that difference buys 7 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.
Each has a page of its own with every power figure traced to what the maker published and a full headphone list: iFi Zen CAN and Little Dot MK II. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.