Will a portable player drive the Letshuoer S12 Pro?

On power, yes — all of them. Every one of the 39 portable players in this database reaches 100 dB SPL on the Letshuoer S12 Pro, which needs 0.63 mW at its 16Ω.

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 cheapest one that does reach it is the Hidizs AP80 Pro Max at $179, which delivers 35 mW into 16Ω — 17 dB of headroom over the 0.63 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 0.02 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 Letshuoer S12 Pro wants a source below 2.00Ω. Of the 26 portable players here that publish an output impedance, 25 are under it and 1 are not.

The furthest over is the Shanling H5 at 4.7Ω, which is 2× the ceiling. Above that threshold the source stops being a volume control and starts being part of the frequency response. The simulator shows what that looks like.

The other 13 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 102.0 dB/mW and 16Ω, the Letshuoer S12 Pro turns one microvolt of source noise into about -0 dB SPL — and the threshold where that stops being noticeable in a quiet room is around 20 dB SPL.

Of the 12 portable players here that publish a noise figure, 12 stay below that threshold with this headphone and 0 cross it.

The remaining 27 publish no noise figure, so they cannot be placed on either side.

The cheapest one that clears all three

SourcePriceInto 16 ΩHeadroomOutput impedanceHiss in these
FiiO JM21$199360 mW27.6 dB1 Ω4 dB SPL
FiiO M11S$499300 mW26.8 dB1.5 Ω5 dB SPL
FiiO M21$599480 mW28.8 dB1.0 Ω6 dB SPL

11 of the 39 portable players here publish all three figures. 11 of those clear all three for the Letshuoer S12 Pro, and the cheapest is the FiiO JM21 at $199.

It delivers 360 mW into 16 Ω where this headphone needs 0.63 mW for 100 dB — 27.6 dB of headroom — its output impedance of 1 Ω sits under the one-eighth ceiling of 2.00 Ω, and its 1.6 µV of noise leaves the hiss 16 dB under the 20 dB SPL threshold this site uses.

Cheapest that satisfies three published numbers is not the same as best, and the sources left out of this count are left out for want of a published figure, not for failing one. How often that happens is its own page.

The 12 best matches in this category

SourcePriceInto 16ΩOutput impedanceHiss in thesePower verdict
Hidizs AP80 Pro Max$17935 mWnot publishednot publishedComfortable
TempoTec Variations V3 Blaze$179412 mWnot publishednot publishedComfortable
Surfans F28$18062 mWnot publishednot publishedComfortable
Hidizs AP80 Pro-X$18935 mWnot publishednot publishedComfortable
FiiO JM21$199360 mW1 Ω4 dB SPLComfortable
Shanling M1 Plus$20998 mW0.6 Ωnot publishedComfortable
Moondrop DISCDREAM2 ULTRA$35056 mWnot publishednot publishedComfortable
Sony NW-A306$35035 mWnot publishednot publishedComfortable
TempoTec Variations V6$369165 mWnot publishednot publishedComfortable
Shanling M3 Ultra$47970 mW1 Ωnot publishedComfortable
iBasso DX180$480525 mW0.6 Ωnot publishedComfortable
FiiO M11S$499300 mW1.5 Ω5 dB SPLComfortable

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 Letshuoer S12 Pro on other categories: desktop amplifiers · desktop DAC/amps · audio interfaces.

The Letshuoer S12 Pro page has every source in the database against this headphone, and the matcher takes your own numbers.

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