The Campfire Audio Ara is 8Ω at 94.0 dB (no figure from the maker at all); the Campfire Audio Astrolith is 8.2Ω at 100.1 dB/mW. This page covers what they ask of an amplifier, not how they sound.
The Ara needs 6.1 dB more than the Astrolith to reach the same loudness — 4.0 mW against 0.98 mW.
| Specification | Ara | Astrolith |
|---|---|---|
| Impedance | 8 Ω | 8.2 Ω |
| Sensitivity | 94.0 dB | 100.1 dB/mW |
| Sensitivity (voltage) | 115.0 dB/V | 121.0 dB/V |
| Power for 100 dB | 4.0 mW | 0.98 mW |
| Voltage for 100 dB | 0.18 V | 90 mV |
| Current for 100 dB | 22.3 mA | 10.9 mA |
| Highest source impedance that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule) | 1.00 Ω | 1.02 Ω |
| Sources that reach 100 dB out of 280 | 278 | 280 |
One caution before reading the rows. For Campfire Audio Ara 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.
2 of the 280 sources have the power for the Astrolith but not for the Ara — Apple USB-C dongle (EU), Steinberg UR22C.
278 of the 280 sources here reach 100 dB on both.
The Ara is more demanding than 54% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the Astrolith than 28%.
| dB SPL | Ara power | Ara voltage | Astrolith power | Astrolith voltage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | 0.04 mW | 18 mV | 9.8 µW | 9 mV |
| 85 | 0.13 mW | 32 mV | 0.03 mW | 16 mV |
| 90 | 0.40 mW | 56 mV | 0.10 mW | 28 mV |
| 95 | 1.3 mW | 0.10 V | 0.31 mW | 50 mV |
| 100 | 4.0 mW | 0.18 V | 0.98 mW | 90 mV |
| 105 | 13 mW | 0.32 V | 3.1 mW | 0.16 V |
| Source | Price | Headroom, Ara | Headroom, Astrolith | Output impedance | Noise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JadeAudio JA11 | $20 | 2.8 dB | 9.0 dB | 0.5 Ω | 1.7 µV |
| FiiO KA11 | $29 | 14.9 dB | 21.1 dB | 0.7 Ω | 1.7 µV |
| FiiO BTR11 | $36 | 7.5 dB | 13.7 dB | 0.5 Ω | 8.0 µV |
Of the 280 sources here, 278 reach 100 dB on both. 62 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 62 is the JadeAudio JA11, at $20. It leaves 2.8 dB of headroom on the Ara and 9.0 dB on the Astrolith, its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 1.00 Ω and 1.02 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 20 dB and 14 dB below the 20 dB SPL this site treats as the point where a quiet room stops hiding it.
Both have a page of their own. In full: Campfire Audio Ara and Campfire Audio Astrolith. 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.