The AK HC3 is a portable single-ended DAC & Amp while the AK HC2 is a balanced DAC & Amp. The AK HC3 has a 3.5mm single-ended output and the AK HC2 has a 4.4mm pentaconn balanced output. These units also differ in terms of output power with AK HC3 delivering 2Vrms (Condition No Road) as compared to 4Vrms (Condition No Load) on AK HC2. The AK HC2 utilises Cirrus Logic CS43198 dual DAC chip and the AK HC3 utilises a dual ES9219MQ DAC chip from ESS Sabre.