Dan Clark Audio Expanse vs Philips SHP9600: which needs more amplifier?

The Dan Clark Audio Expanse is 26Ω at 90.0 dB/mW; the Philips SHP9600 is 32Ω at 102.0 dB (no reference unit printed). 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 Dan Clark Audio Expanse needs 12.0 dB more than the Philips SHP9600 to reach the same loudness — 10 mW against 0.63 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationDan Clark Audio ExpansePhilips SHP9600
Impedance26 Ω32 Ω
Sensitivity90.0 dB/mW102.0 dB
Sensitivity (voltage)105.9 dB/V116.9 dB/V
Power for 100 dB10 mW0.63 mW
Voltage for 100 dB0.51 V0.14 V
Current for 100 dB19.6 mA4.4 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
3.25 Ω4.00 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
279280

One caution before reading the rows. Philips SHP9600 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

1 of the 280 sources has the power for the Philips SHP9600 but not for the Dan Clark Audio Expanse — Steinberg UR22C.

279 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: Dan Clark Audio Expanse and Philips SHP9600. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones Dan Clark Audio and Philips never published — what Dan Clark Audio publishes and what Philips publishes, both counted.