Audient EVO 16 vs MOTU UltraLite-mk5

Both are audio interfaces, $750 against $699. 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 MOTU UltraLite-mk5 reaches 100 dB on 566 of the 567 models here, the Audient EVO 16 on 558.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationAudient EVO 16MOTU UltraLite-mk5
Power into 32Ω87 mW471 mW
Power into 150Ω49 mW100 mW
Power into 300Ω32 mW50 mW
Power into 600Ω24 mW25 mW
Output impedance50 Ω1 Ω
Output noisenot publishednot published
Price$750$699
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
558566

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.

The headphones that tell them apart

8 headphones reach 100 dB on the MOTU UltraLite-mk5 but not on the Audient EVO 16 — Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA, Moondrop PARA 2, 5 more.

546 headphones are left alone by the MOTU UltraLite-mk5 under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the Audient EVO 16 (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Ocean, 543 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.

Both pages in full

Each has a page of its own with every power figure traced to what the maker published and a full headphone list: Audient EVO 16 and MOTU UltraLite-mk5. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.