IK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE vs Zoom AMS-22

Both are audio interfaces, $130 against $100. 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 IK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE reaches 100 dB on 550 of the 567 models here, the Zoom AMS-22 on 538.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationIK Multimedia AXE I/O ONEZoom AMS-22
Power into 32Ω26 mW20 mW
Power into 150Ω13 mW6.5 mW
Power into 300Ω6.7 mW3.4 mW
Power into 600Ω3.3 mW1.8 mW
Output impedance<0.1 Ω10 Ω
Output noisenot publishednot published
Price$130$100
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
550538

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

12 headphones reach 100 dB on the IK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE but not on the Zoom AMS-22 — Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC, Audeze LCD-5, Beyerdynamic DT 880 Edition (600Ω), 9 more.

510 headphones are left alone by the IK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the Zoom AMS-22 (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Nio, 507 more).

538 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: IK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE and Zoom AMS-22. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.