MMX 300 (32Ω) vs T5 (3rd Generation): which needs more amplifier?

The Beyerdynamic MMX 300 (32Ω) is 32Ω at 96.0 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 MMX 300 (32Ω) needs 4.0 dB more than the T5 (3rd Generation) to reach the same loudness — 2.5 mW against 1.0 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationMMX 300 (32Ω)T5 (3rd Generation)
Impedance32 Ω32 Ω
Sensitivity96.0 dB100.0 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)110.9 dB/V114.9 dB/V
Power for 100 dB2.5 mW1.0 mW
Voltage for 100 dB0.28 V0.18 V
Current for 100 dB8.9 mA5.6 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
4.00 Ω4.00 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

One caution before reading the rows. Beyerdynamic MMX 300 (32Ω) 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 stays below the audible-hiss threshold with the MMX 300 (32Ω) but crosses it with the T5 (3rd Generation) (Schiit Mjolnir 3).

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.

What each one needs from 80 to 105 dB

The gap between these two in decibels does not change with volume — it is a property of the two headphones. What changes is the size of the numbers, and it changes fast: every 10 dB costs ten times the power. The row that matters is the one nearest the level you listen at, and for most people that is nearer the top of this table than the bottom.

The MMX 300 (32Ω) is more demanding than 72% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the T5 (3rd Generation) than 54%. Both figures use the same measure as the rest of the site: whichever runs out first against a 2 V, 100 mW dongle, voltage or power.

dB SPLMMX 300 (32Ω) powerMMX 300 (32Ω) voltageT5 (3rd Generation) powerT5 (3rd Generation) voltage
800.03 mW28 mV0.01 mW18 mV
850.08 mW50 mV0.03 mW32 mV
900.25 mW90 mV0.10 mW57 mV
950.79 mW0.16 V0.32 mW0.10 V
1002.5 mW0.28 V1.0 mW0.18 V
1057.9 mW0.50 V3.2 mW0.32 V

105 dB is included because forum power figures are usually quoted there or higher. It is also a level that damages hearing in minutes — how many minutes is its own calculator.

The cheapest source that satisfies both

SourcePriceHeadroom, MMX 300 (32Ω)Headroom, T5 (3rd Generation)Output impedanceNoise
JadeAudio JA11$2010.8 dB14.8 dB0.5 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO KA11$2919.0 dB23.0 dB0.7 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO BTR11$3610.8 dB14.8 dB0.5 Ω8.0 µV

Of the 280 sources here, 280 reach 100 dB on both. That is the easy axis. 69 of them also publish an output impedance low enough for both under the one-eighth rule and a noise figure that stays below the audible-hiss threshold with both — the rest either fail one of those or never printed the number at all, and 208 of them are in the second group.

The cheapest of the 69 is the JadeAudio JA11, at $20. It leaves 10.8 dB of headroom on the MMX 300 (32Ω) and 14.8 dB on the T5 (3rd Generation), its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 4.00 Ω for both, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 24 dB and 20 dB below the 20 dB SPL this site treats as the point where a quiet room stops hiding it.

Cheapest that satisfies three published numbers is not the same as best, and none of it is about how either headphone sounds. To put either model against a source this page does not mention, or to change the target loudness, use the amplifier matcher.

What each sheet prints, and what it is worth

ModelAs printedToleranceStandard
MMX 300 (32Ω)5 - 35,000 Hznot printednot printed
T5 (3rd Generation)5 - 50,000 Hznot printednot printed

Beyerdynamic prints 5 - 35,000 Hz for the MMX 300 (32Ω) and 5 - 50,000 Hz for the T5 (3rd Generation).

Neither range has a tolerance printed beside it, and that is the whole of what this section can tell you. A wider range on one sheet is not deeper bass or more treble on that headphone: without a tolerance, neither number says how loud either model is at the ends of its own range, so the difference between the two is a difference between two pieces of marketing copy. A ±dB figure is what turns a range into a specification, and of the 490 models whose maker prints a range, 58 print it.

None of this is a measurement. What each maker publishes, and what it is worth, is set out in the frequency response audit.

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 MMX 300 (32Ω) 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.

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