Apogee BOOM vs Zoom AMS-44

Short answer

  • More power: the Apogee BOOM, with 240 mW into 32 Ω; the Zoom AMS-44 has 30 mW. The Apogee BOOM drives 16 headphones to 100 dB that the Zoom AMS-44 cannot (HiFiMAN HE-6se V2, HiFiMAN HE6 Remastered, HiFiMAN Susvara, 13 more).
  • Hiss with sensitive IEMs: cannot be compared — neither maker publishes a noise figure.
  • Output impedance: 509 headphones are left alone by the Apogee BOOM under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the Zoom AMS-44 (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Nio, 506 more).
  • Price: the Apogee BOOM costs $99 more; what that buys on these numbers is set out further down, under What the price difference buys.

Both are audio interfaces, $299 against $200.

The Apogee BOOM reaches 100 dB on 565 of the 567 models here, the Zoom AMS-44 on 549.

Side by side

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationApogee BOOMZoom AMS-44
Power into 32Ω240 mW30 mW
Power into 150Ω51 mW9.7 mW
Power into 300Ω26 mW5.2 mW
Power into 600Ω13 mW2.7 mW
Output impedance0.5 Ω10 Ω
Output noisenot publishednot published
Price$299$200
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567		565549

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 BOOMZoom AMS-44
32 ΩPublishedPublished
150 ΩDerivedDerived
300 ΩDerivedDerived
600 ΩDerivedDerived

Both makers publish a power rating. Apogee BOOM publishes at 32 Ω; Zoom AMS-44 at 32 Ω. The other rows are worked out from those.

The two publish at the same loads, which is the one case where the rows of this table can be read straight across.

What the labels mean.

What separates them

The headphones that tell them apart

16 headphones reach 100 dB on the Apogee BOOM but not on the Zoom AMS-44 — HiFiMAN HE-6se V2, HiFiMAN HE6 Remastered, HiFiMAN Susvara, 13 more.

509 headphones are left alone by the Apogee BOOM under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the Zoom AMS-44 (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Nio, 506 more).

549 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 Shure SE846: Apogee BOOM has +32 dB of headroom there against +23 dB. 9 dB is about 8 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for Apogee BOOM and Zoom AMS-44 because neither maker publishes no output noise figure.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsApogee BOOM headroomZoom AMS-44 headroomApogee BOOM hissZoom AMS-44 hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+32 dB+23 dB dampingnot publishednot published
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+12 dB+3 dB dampingnot publishednot published
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+21 dB+13 dB dampingnot publishednot published
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+17 dB+10 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+14 dB+5 dB dampingnot publishednot published
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+10 dB+3 dBnot publishednot published
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+6 dB-1 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW+4 dB-4 dB dampingnot publishednot published
What the price difference buys

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Apogee BOOM costs $99 more than the Zoom AMS-44. Out of the 567 models here, that difference buys 16 more models driven to 100 dB and 509 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 Zoom AMS-44.

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