AH-D2000 vs AH-MM400: which needs more amplifier?

The Denon AH-D2000 is 25Ω at 106.0 dB/mW; the Denon AH-MM400 is 40Ω at 105.0 dB (no figure from the maker at all). 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 AH-MM400 needs 1.0 dB more than the AH-D2000 to reach the same loudness — 0.32 mW against 0.25 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationAH-D2000AH-MM400
Impedance25 Ω40 Ω
Sensitivity106.0 dB/mW105.0 dB
Sensitivity (voltage)122.0 dB/V119.0 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.25 mW0.32 mW
Voltage for 100 dB79 mV0.11 V
Current for 100 dB3.2 mA2.8 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
3.12 Ω5.00 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

One caution before reading the rows. For Denon AH-MM400 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.

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 is low enough in output impedance for the AH-MM400 under the one-eighth rule but not for the AH-D2000 (Shanling H5).

2 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the AH-MM400 but cross it with the AH-D2000 (FiiO BTR11, Rupert Neve RNHP).

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.

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: Denon AH-D2000 and Denon AH-MM400. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones Denon never published — what that maker publishes, counted.