The Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020 is 9Ω at 94.0 dB (no figure from the maker at all); the Campfire Audio Chimera is 5.5Ω at 108.1 dB/mW. This page covers what they ask of an amplifier, not how they sound.
The Andromeda 2020 needs 14.1 dB more than the Chimera to reach the same loudness — 4.0 mW against 0.15 mW.
| Specification | Andromeda 2020 | Chimera |
|---|---|---|
| Impedance | 9 Ω | 5.5 Ω |
| Sensitivity | 94.0 dB | 108.1 dB/mW |
| Sensitivity (voltage) | 114.5 dB/V | 130.7 dB/V |
| Power for 100 dB | 4.0 mW | 0.15 mW |
| Voltage for 100 dB | 0.19 V | 29 mV |
| Current for 100 dB | 21.0 mA | 5.3 mA |
| Highest source impedance that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule) | 1.12 Ω | 0.69 Ω |
| Sources that reach 100 dB out of 280 | 279 | 280 |
One caution before reading the rows. For Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020 the maker publishes no sensitivity figure at all. The number in the table was collected when this database was first built and has never been traced to a manufacturer document, so treat every row below it as an estimate rather than a specification.
1 of the 280 sources has the power for the Chimera but not for the Andromeda 2020 — Steinberg UR22C.
43 sources are low enough in output impedance for the Andromeda 2020 under the one-eighth rule but not for the Chimera (FiiO SnowSky Tiny B, FiiO KA11, JDS Labs Atom+ (2nd gen), 40 more).
28 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the Andromeda 2020 but cross it with the Chimera (Kiwi Ears Allegro Mini, FiiO BTR11, Fosi Audio SK02, 25 more).
279 of the 280 sources here reach 100 dB on both.
The Andromeda 2020 is more demanding than 56% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the Chimera than 3%.
| dB SPL | Andromeda 2020 power | Andromeda 2020 voltage | Chimera power | Chimera voltage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | 0.04 mW | 19 mV | 1.5 µW | 3 mV |
| 85 | 0.13 mW | 34 mV | 4.9 µW | 5 mV |
| 90 | 0.40 mW | 60 mV | 0.02 mW | 9 mV |
| 95 | 1.3 mW | 0.11 V | 0.05 mW | 16 mV |
| 100 | 4.0 mW | 0.19 V | 0.15 mW | 29 mV |
| 105 | 13 mW | 0.34 V | 0.49 mW | 52 mV |
| Source | Price | Headroom, Andromeda 2020 | Headroom, Chimera | Output impedance | Noise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JadeAudio JA11 | $20 | 3.3 dB | 15.2 dB | 0.5 Ω | 1.7 µV |
| FiiO BTR13 | $59 | 12.3 dB | 24.3 dB | 0.6 Ω | 1.0 µV |
| iBasso DC03 Pro | $69 | 8.4 dB | 20.4 dB | 0.12 Ω | 0.9 µV |
Of the 280 sources here, 279 reach 100 dB on both. 25 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 cheapest of the 25 is the JadeAudio JA11, at $20. It leaves 3.3 dB of headroom on the Andromeda 2020 and 15.2 dB on the Chimera, its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 1.12 Ω and 0.69 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 21 dB and 5 dB below the 20 dB SPL this site treats as the point where a quiet room stops hiding it.
| Model | As printed | Tolerance | Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andromeda 2020 | nothing printed | — | — |
| Chimera | 5-20 kHz | not printed | not printed |
Campfire Audio prints nothing at all for the Andromeda 2020 and 5-20 kHz for the Chimera.
So one side of this comparison has a frequency-response number and the other does not — which changes less than it looks. The range printed for the Chimera comes with no tolerance beside it, and a range without a ±dB figure says nothing about how loud the headphone is at either end of it: thirty decibels down at the bottom and the sentence would still be true. On the only reading that would have made it a specification, the two sheets say the same amount: nothing.
Not a measurement; maker by maker.
Both have a page of their own. In full: Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020 and Campfire Audio Chimera. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones Campfire Audio never published — what that maker publishes, counted.