Universal Audio Volt 1 vs Zoom AMS-22

Both are audio interfaces, $149 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 Universal Audio Volt 1 reaches 100 dB on 558 of the 567 models here, the Zoom AMS-22 on 538.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationUniversal Audio Volt 1Zoom AMS-22
Power into 32Ω84 mW20 mW
Power into 150Ω28 mW6.5 mW
Power into 300Ω22 mW3.4 mW
Power into 600Ω12 mW1.8 mW
Output impedancenot published10 Ω
Output noisenot publishednot published
Price$149$100
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
558538

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

20 headphones reach 100 dB on the Universal Audio Volt 1 but not on the Zoom AMS-22 — Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC, Audeze LCD-5, Beyerdynamic DT 880 Edition (600Ω), 17 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: Universal Audio Volt 1 and Zoom AMS-22. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.