Apogee BOOM vs Audient EVO 8

Short answer

  • More power: the Apogee BOOM, with 240 mW into 32 Ω; the Audient EVO 8 has 22 mW. The Apogee BOOM drives 22 headphones to 100 dB that the Audient EVO 8 cannot (Dan Clark Audio AEON 2 Closed, Dan Clark Audio AEON 2 Noire, Dan Clark Audio AEON 2 Open, 19 more).
  • Hiss with sensitive IEMs: cannot be compared — neither maker publishes a noise figure.
  • Output impedance: 560 headphones are left alone by the Apogee BOOM under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the Audient EVO 8 (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Nio, 557 more).
  • Price: the Apogee BOOM costs $50 more; what that buys on these numbers is set out further down, under What the price difference buys.

Both are audio interfaces, $299 against $249.

The Apogee BOOM reaches 100 dB on 565 of the 567 models here, the Audient EVO 8 on 543.

Side by side

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationApogee BOOMAudient EVO 8
Power into 32Ω240 mW22 mW
Power into 150Ω51 mW14 mW
Power into 300Ω26 mW11 mW
Power into 600Ω13 mW10 mW
Output impedance0.5 Ω50 Ω
Output noisenot publishednot published
Price$299$249
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567		565543

Not published means the maker leaves it out, so that axis cannot be compared.

How solid these numbers are

Where each power figure comes from

LoadApogee BOOMAudient EVO 8
32 ΩPublishedDerived
150 ΩDerivedDerived
300 ΩDerivedDerived
600 ΩDerivedRecomputed

Only one of these two columns starts from a power rating. Apogee BOOM publishes one at 32 Ω; Audient EVO 8 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 Audient EVO 8 understates rather than flatters — but at 32 Ω is the only load here at which its maker can be held to a figure.

What the labels mean.

What separates them

The headphones that tell them apart

22 headphones reach 100 dB on the Apogee BOOM but not on the Audient EVO 8 — Dan Clark Audio AEON 2 Closed, Dan Clark Audio AEON 2 Noire, Dan Clark Audio AEON 2 Open, 19 more.

560 headphones are left alone by the Apogee BOOM under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the Audient EVO 8 (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Nio, 557 more).

543 of the 567 models here reach 100 dB on both.

On real headphones

Headroom and hiss on 8 models, both sources

Headroom is at a 100 dB SPL peak.

The widest gap on the list is the HiFiMAN HE400se: Apogee BOOM has +14 dB of headroom there against +4 dB. 10 dB is about 10 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for Apogee BOOM and Audient EVO 8 because neither maker publishes no output noise figure.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsApogee BOOM headroomAudient EVO 8 headroomApogee BOOM hissAudient EVO 8 hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+32 dB+22 dB dampingnot publishednot published
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+12 dB+2 dB dampingnot publishednot published
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+21 dB+15 dB dampingnot publishednot published
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+17 dB+13 dB dampingnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+14 dB+4 dB dampingnot publishednot published
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+10 dB+8 dBnot publishednot published
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+6 dB+2 dB dampingnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW+4 dB-3 dB dampingnot publishednot published
What the price difference buys

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Apogee BOOM costs $50 more than the Audient EVO 8. Out of the 567 models here, that difference buys 22 more models driven to 100 dB and 560 more models left alone under the one-eighth rule.

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

Only published figures count here; blank axes are counted separately.

Next

Both pages in full

Each in full: Apogee BOOM and Audient EVO 8.

↑