Audient EVO 8 vs Steinberg UR44C

Short answer

  • More power: the Steinberg UR44C, with 80 mW into 32 Ω; the Audient EVO 8 has 22 mW. The Steinberg UR44C drives 15 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, 12 more).
  • Hiss with sensitive IEMs: cannot be compared — neither maker publishes a noise figure.
  • Price: the Steinberg UR44C costs $100 more; what that buys on these numbers is set out further down, under What the price difference buys.

Both are audio interfaces, $249 against $349.

The Steinberg UR44C reaches 100 dB on 558 of the 567 models here, the Audient EVO 8 on 543.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationAudient EVO 8Steinberg UR44C
Power into 32Ω22 mW80 mW
Power into 150Ω14 mW27 mW
Power into 300Ω11 mW13 mW
Power into 600Ω10 mW6.7 mW
Output impedance50 Ωnot published
Output noisenot publishednot published
Price$249$349
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
543558

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

Where each power figure comes from

LoadAudient EVO 8Steinberg UR44C
32 ΩDerivedDerived
150 ΩDerivedDerived
300 ΩDerivedDerived
600 ΩRecomputedDerived

Neither column is a maker’s power rating at these loads. Of the 280 sources here, 209 publish a figure at at least one load; these two do not, so every row above is derived — between or beyond the loads each maker did publish, holding output voltage as the maker’s own figures imply. The method understates rather than flatters, but it is still arithmetic rather than a rating.

What the labels mean.

The headphones that tell them apart

15 headphones reach 100 dB on the Steinberg UR44C 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, 12 more.

543 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 Shure SE846: Steinberg UR44C has +28 dB of headroom there against +22 dB. 5 dB is about 3.3 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for Audient EVO 8 and Steinberg UR44C because neither maker publishes no output noise figure.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsAudient EVO 8 headroomSteinberg UR44C headroomAudient EVO 8 hissSteinberg UR44C hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+22 dB damping+28 dBnot publishednot published
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+2 dB damping+8 dBnot publishednot published
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+15 dB damping+19 dBnot publishednot published
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+13 dB damping+14 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+4 dB damping+9 dBnot publishednot published
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+8 dB+7 dBnot publishednot published
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+2 dB damping+3 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW-3 dB damping+1 dBnot publishednot published

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Steinberg UR44C costs $100 more than the Audient EVO 8. Out of the 567 models here, that difference buys 15 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

Each in full: Audient EVO 8 and Steinberg UR44C.

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