Gustard H20 vs Schiit Mjolnir 3

Short answer

  • More power: the Gustard H20, with 12.00 W into 32 Ω; the Schiit Mjolnir 3 has 1.00 W. The Gustard H20 drives 1 headphone to 100 dB that the Schiit Mjolnir 3 cannot (Symphonium Titan).
  • Hiss with sensitive IEMs: cannot be compared — the maker of the Gustard H20 publishes no noise figure.
  • Price: the Gustard H20 costs $270 less, and wherever both makers publish a figure the Schiit Mjolnir 3 shows no advantage for the extra money.

Both are desktop amplifiers, $929 against $1199.

The Gustard H20 reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here, the Schiit Mjolnir 3 on 566.

Side by side

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationGustard H20Schiit Mjolnir 3
Power into 32Ω12.0 W1.0 W
Power into 150Ω2.7 W488 mW
Power into 300Ω1.3 W500 mW
Power into 600Ω670 mW250 mW
Output impedancenot published0.13 Ω
Output noisenot published25.18 µV
Price$929$1199
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567		567566

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

Balanced output

The 4.4 mm or XLR socket, rated on its own

BalancedGustard H20Schiit Mjolnir 3
Socketno separate ratingXLR4
Power into 32Ω—2.0 W
Power into 300Ω—1.0 W
Output impedance—0.25 Ω
Output noise—not published
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567		—567

Only the Schiit Mjolnir 3 has a separate balanced rating from its maker; through it, it reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here. The Gustard H20 may still have a balanced socket — its spec sheet simply gives no figure for one, so there is nothing to put beside it.

How solid these numbers are

Where each power figure comes from

LoadGustard H20Schiit Mjolnir 3
32 ΩPublishedPublished
150 ΩPublishedDerived
300 ΩPublishedPublished
600 ΩPublishedDerived

Both makers publish a power rating. Gustard H20 publishes at 32 Ω, at 150 Ω, at 300 Ω and at 600 Ω; Schiit Mjolnir 3 at 32 Ω and at 300 Ω. The other rows are worked out from those.

So the two columns are not equally firm row by row: at 150 Ω and at 600 Ω only the Gustard H20 figure is the maker’s own. On those rows the derived number is the one to doubt first.

What the labels mean.

What separates them

The headphones that tell them apart

1 headphone reaches 100 dB on the Gustard H20 but not on the Schiit Mjolnir 3 — Symphonium Titan.

566 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: Gustard H20 has +31 dB of headroom there against +20 dB. 11 dB is about 12 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for Gustard H20 because that maker publishes no output noise figure.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsGustard H20 headroomSchiit Mjolnir 3 headroomGustard H20 hissSchiit Mjolnir 3 hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+49 dB+38 dBnot published42 dB
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+29 dB+18 dBnot published22 dB
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+38 dB+29 dBnot published21 dB
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+34 dB+29 dBnot published16 dB
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+31 dB+20 dBnot published15 dB
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+27 dB+23 dBnot published9 dB
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+23 dB+19 dBnot published5 dB
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW+21 dB+11 dBnot published3 dB
What the price difference buys

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Schiit Mjolnir 3 costs $270 more than the Gustard H20, and on these three axes the money buys nothing: among the 567 models here there is not one that the Schiit Mjolnir 3 handles and the Gustard H20 does not — not on power, not on the one-eighth rule, not on hiss. The traffic runs the other way: the cheaper Gustard H20 drives one model to 100 dB that the Schiit Mjolnir 3 does not.

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

Next

Both pages in full

Each in full: Gustard H20 and Schiit Mjolnir 3.

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