Audeze MM-500 vs Dan Clark Audio Stealth: which needs more amplifier?

The Audeze MM-500 is 18Ω at 100.0 dB/mW; the Dan Clark Audio Stealth is 23Ω at 90.0 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 Dan Clark Audio Stealth needs 10.0 dB more than the Audeze MM-500 to reach the same loudness — 10 mW against 1.0 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationAudeze MM-500Dan Clark Audio Stealth
Impedance18 Ω23 Ω
Sensitivity100.0 dB/mW90.0 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)117.4 dB/V106.4 dB/V
Power for 100 dB1.0 mW10 mW
Voltage for 100 dB0.13 V0.48 V
Current for 100 dB7.5 mA20.9 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
2.25 Ω2.88 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280279

Where the two part company

1 of the 280 sources has the power for the Audeze MM-500 but not for the Dan Clark Audio Stealth — Steinberg UR22C.

279 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 MM-500 and Dan Clark Audio Stealth. Every figure on this page comes from what Audeze and Dan Clark Audio published, or is derived from it — what Audeze publishes and what Dan Clark Audio publishes, both counted.