LCD-3 vs MM-100: which needs more amplifier?

The Audeze LCD-3 is 110Ω at 101.0 dB/mW; the Audeze MM-100 is 18Ω at 98.0 dB/mW. 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 MM-100 needs 3.0 dB more than the LCD-3 to reach the same loudness — 1.6 mW against 0.79 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationLCD-3MM-100
Impedance110 Ω18 Ω
Sensitivity101.0 dB/mW98.0 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)110.6 dB/V115.4 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.79 mW1.6 mW
Voltage for 100 dB0.30 V0.17 V
Current for 100 dB2.7 mA9.4 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
13.75 Ω2.25 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

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.

17 sources are low enough in output impedance for the LCD-3 under the one-eighth rule but not for the MM-100 (Zoom AMS-22, Arturia MiniFuse 2, Arturia MiniFuse 1, 14 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: Audeze LCD-3 and Audeze MM-100. Every figure on this page comes from what Audeze published, or is derived from it — what that maker publishes, counted.