Audient EVO 16 vs Universal Audio Volt 876

Short answer

  • More power: the Universal Audio Volt 876, with 225 mW into 32 Ω; the Audient EVO 16 has 87 mW. The Universal Audio Volt 876 drives 7 headphones to 100 dB that the Audient EVO 16 cannot (Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA 2, Moondrop VENUS, 4 more).
  • Hiss with sensitive IEMs: cannot be compared — neither maker publishes a noise figure.
  • Price: the Universal Audio Volt 876 costs $249 more; what that buys on these numbers is set out further down, under What the price difference buys.

Both are audio interfaces, $750 against $999.

The Universal Audio Volt 876 reaches 100 dB on 565 of the 567 models here, the Audient EVO 16 on 558.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationAudient EVO 16Universal Audio Volt 876
Power into 32Ω87 mW225 mW
Power into 150Ω49 mW79 mW
Power into 300Ω32 mW65 mW
Power into 600Ω24 mW35 mW
Output impedance50 Ωnot published
Output noisenot publishednot published
Price$750$999
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
558565

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

Where each power figure comes from

LoadAudient EVO 16Universal Audio Volt 876
32 ΩDerivedPublished
150 ΩDerivedDerived
300 ΩDerivedPublished
600 ΩPublishedPublished

Both makers publish a power rating. Audient EVO 16 publishes at 600 Ω; Universal Audio Volt 876 at 32 Ω, at 300 Ω and at 600 Ω. The other rows are worked out from those.

So the two columns are not equally firm row by row: at 32 Ω and at 300 Ω only the Universal Audio Volt 876 figure is the maker’s own. On those rows the derived number is the one to doubt first.

What the labels mean.

The headphones that tell them apart

7 headphones reach 100 dB on the Universal Audio Volt 876 but not on the Audient EVO 16 — Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA 2, Moondrop VENUS, 4 more.

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

Headroom and hiss on 8 models, both sources

Headroom is at a 100 dB SPL peak.

The widest gap on the list is the Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020: Universal Audio Volt 876 has +12 dB of headroom there against +8 dB. 4 dB is about 2.5 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for Audient EVO 16 and Universal Audio Volt 876 because neither maker publishes no output noise figure.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsAudient EVO 16 headroomUniversal Audio Volt 876 headroomAudient EVO 16 hissUniversal Audio Volt 876 hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+28 dB damping+32 dBnot publishednot published
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+8 dB damping+12 dBnot publishednot published
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+21 dB damping+22 dBnot publishednot published
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+17 dB damping+20 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+10 dB damping+13 dBnot publishednot published
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+12 dB+14 dBnot publishednot published
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+7 dB damping+10 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW+3 dB damping+4 dBnot publishednot published

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Universal Audio Volt 876 costs $249 more than the Audient EVO 16. Out of the 567 models here, that difference buys 7 more models driven to 100 dB.

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.

Both pages in full

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