DT 275 PRO vs T5 (3rd Generation): which needs more amplifier?

The Beyerdynamic DT 275 PRO is 45Ω at 105.0 dB (no reference unit printed); the Beyerdynamic T5 (3rd Generation) is 32Ω at 100.0 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 T5 (3rd Generation) needs 5.0 dB more than the DT 275 PRO to reach the same loudness — 1.0 mW against 0.32 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationDT 275 PROT5 (3rd Generation)
Impedance45 Ω32 Ω
Sensitivity105.0 dB100.0 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)118.5 dB/V114.9 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.32 mW1.0 mW
Voltage for 100 dB0.12 V0.18 V
Current for 100 dB2.7 mA5.6 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
5.62 Ω4.00 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

One caution before reading the rows. Beyerdynamic DT 275 PRO printed a decibel figure with no reference unit, so this page reads it as per milliwatt. If it is really per volt, that model 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.

1 source is low enough in output impedance for the DT 275 PRO under the one-eighth rule but not for the T5 (3rd Generation) (Shanling H5).

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: Beyerdynamic DT 275 PRO and Beyerdynamic T5 (3rd Generation). Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones Beyerdynamic never published — what that maker publishes, counted.