Both are desktop amplifiers, $150 against $149. 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 Schiit Vali 3 reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here, the PreSonus HP4 on 558.
| Specification | PreSonus HP4 | Schiit Vali 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Power into 32Ω | 69 mW | 1.5 W |
| Power into 150Ω | 52 mW | 496 mW |
| Power into 300Ω | 26 mW | 400 mW |
| Power into 600Ω | 13 mW | 200 mW |
| Output impedance | not published | 0.5 Ω |
| Output noise | not published | 2.83 µV |
| Price | $150 | $149 |
| Headphones it reaches 100 dB on out of 567 | 558 | 567 |
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 | PreSonus HP4 | Schiit Vali 3 |
|---|---|---|
| 32 Ω | Derived | Published |
| 150 Ω | Derived | Derived |
| 300 Ω | Derived | Published |
| 600 Ω | Derived | Published |
Only one of these two columns starts from a power rating. Schiit Vali 3 publishes one at 32 Ω, at 300 Ω and at 600 Ω; PreSonus HP4 publishes none at any of these four loads, so its column is worked out from power it published at other loads. Both are arithmetic on a maker’s own figures rather than guesses, and the method used for the PreSonus HP4 understates rather than flatters — but at 32 Ω, at 300 Ω and at 600 Ω are the only loads here at which its maker can be held to a figure.
What each of these labels means, and why a derived figure is still worth printing, is set out in how this data was built.
9 headphones reach 100 dB on the Schiit Vali 3 but not on the PreSonus HP4 — Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA, Moondrop PARA 2, 6 more.
558 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 Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020: Schiit Vali 3 has +20 dB of headroom there against +7 dB. 13 dB is about 22 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.
The hiss columns are empty for PreSonus HP4 because that 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 | PreSonus HP4 headroom | Schiit Vali 3 headroom | PreSonus HP4 hiss | Schiit Vali 3 hiss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shure SE846 | 9 Ω | 0.04 mW | +27 dB | +40 dB | not published | 23 dB |
| Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020 | 9 Ω | 4.0 mW | +7 dB | +20 dB | not published | 3 dB |
| Audeze LCD-2 Classic | 70 Ω | 0.79 mW | +21 dB | +30 dB | not published | 2 dB |
| Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω) | 250 Ω | 0.63 mW | +17 dB | +28 dB | not published | -3 dB |
| HiFiMAN HE400se | 25 Ω | 7.9 mW | +8 dB | +22 dB | not published | -4 dB |
| Audio-Technica ATH-R70X | 470 Ω | 1.6 mW | +10 dB | +22 dB | not published | -10 dB |
| Sennheiser HD 600 | 300 Ω | 6.6 mW | +6 dB | +18 dB | not published | -14 dB |
| HiFiMAN Susvara | 60 Ω | 50 mW | +4 dB | +12 dB | not published | -16 dB |
The PreSonus HP4 costs $1 more than the Schiit Vali 3, and on these three axes the money buys nothing: among the 567 models here there is not one that the PreSonus HP4 handles and the Schiit Vali 3 does not — not on power, not on the one-eighth rule, not on hiss. The traffic runs the other way: the cheaper Schiit Vali 3 drives 9 models to 100 dB that the PreSonus HP4 does not.
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: PreSonus HP4 and Schiit Vali 3. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.