The Campfire Audio Chimera is 5.5Ω at 108.1 dB/mW; the Campfire Audio Holocene is 9Ω at 94.0 dB (no figure from the maker at all). This page covers what they ask of an amplifier, not how they sound.
The Holocene needs 14.1 dB more than the Chimera to reach the same loudness — 4.0 mW against 0.15 mW.
| Specification | Chimera | Holocene |
|---|---|---|
| Impedance | 5.5 Ω | 9 Ω |
| Sensitivity | 108.1 dB/mW | 94.0 dB |
| Sensitivity (voltage) | 130.7 dB/V | 114.5 dB/V |
| Power for 100 dB | 0.15 mW | 4.0 mW |
| Voltage for 100 dB | 29 mV | 0.19 V |
| Current for 100 dB | 5.3 mA | 21.0 mA |
| Highest source impedance that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule) | 0.69 Ω | 1.12 Ω |
| Sources that reach 100 dB out of 280 | 280 | 279 |
One caution before reading the rows. For Campfire Audio Holocene 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 Holocene — Steinberg UR22C.
43 sources are low enough in output impedance for the Holocene 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 Holocene 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 Holocene is more demanding than 56% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the Chimera than 3%.
| dB SPL | Chimera power | Chimera voltage | Holocene power | Holocene voltage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | 1.5 µW | 3 mV | 0.04 mW | 19 mV |
| 85 | 4.9 µW | 5 mV | 0.13 mW | 34 mV |
| 90 | 0.02 mW | 9 mV | 0.40 mW | 60 mV |
| 95 | 0.05 mW | 16 mV | 1.3 mW | 0.11 V |
| 100 | 0.15 mW | 29 mV | 4.0 mW | 0.19 V |
| 105 | 0.49 mW | 52 mV | 13 mW | 0.34 V |
| Source | Price | Headroom, Chimera | Headroom, Holocene | Output impedance | Noise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JadeAudio JA11 | $20 | 15.2 dB | 3.3 dB | 0.5 Ω | 1.7 µV |
| FiiO BTR13 | $59 | 24.3 dB | 12.3 dB | 0.6 Ω | 1.0 µV |
| iBasso DC03 Pro | $69 | 20.4 dB | 8.4 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 15.2 dB of headroom on the Chimera and 3.3 dB on the Holocene, its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 0.69 Ω and 1.12 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 5 dB and 21 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 Chimera and Campfire Audio Holocene. 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.