Performer 5 vs Performer 8: which needs more amplifier?

The AFUL Performer 5 is 35Ω at 110.0 dB (no reference unit printed); the AFUL Performer 8 is 30Ω at 115.0 dB (no reference unit printed). This page is only about what they ask of an amplifier — not how they sound, which no specification on either sheet can tell you.

The Performer 5 needs 5.0 dB more than the Performer 8 to reach the same loudness — 0.10 mW against 0.03 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationPerformer 5Performer 8
Impedance35 Ω30 Ω
Sensitivity110.0 dB115.0 dB
Sensitivity (voltage)124.6 dB/V130.2 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.10 mW0.03 mW
Voltage for 100 dB59 mV31 mV
Current for 100 dB1.7 mA1.0 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
4.38 Ω3.75 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

One caution before reading the rows. AFUL Performer 5 and AFUL Performer 8 printed a decibel figure with no reference unit, so this page reads it as per milliwatt. If it is really per volt, each of them needs far more than the table says. Why the two readings differ by so much.

Where the two part company

Every source in the database that drives one of them drives the other. On power, the choice between these two changes nothing about what amplifier you need.

14 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the Performer 5 but cross it with the Performer 8 (FiiO K7, FiiO Q15, Grace Design m900, 11 more).

280 of the 280 sources here reach 100 dB on both. That count is about power only — the output-impedance and hiss lines above are separate questions, and a source can pass this one and fail those.

Both pages in full

Each model has a page of its own with the full source list, the hiss estimate and the provenance of every figure above: AFUL Performer 5 and AFUL Performer 8. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones AFUL never published — what that maker publishes, counted.