Dream XLS vs Perpetua: which needs more amplifier?

The DITA Audio Dream XLS is 22Ω at 104.0 dB (no reference unit printed); the DITA Audio Perpetua is 20Ω at 108.0 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 Dream XLS needs 4.0 dB more than the Perpetua to reach the same loudness — 0.40 mW against 0.16 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationDream XLSPerpetua
Impedance22 Ω20 Ω
Sensitivity104.0 dB108.0 dB
Sensitivity (voltage)120.6 dB/V125.0 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.40 mW0.16 mW
Voltage for 100 dB94 mV56 mV
Current for 100 dB4.3 mA2.8 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
2.75 Ω2.50 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

One caution before reading the rows. DITA Audio Dream XLS and DITA Audio Perpetua printed a decibel figure with no reference unit, so this page reads it as per milliwatt. If it is really per volt, each of them needs far more than the table says. Why the two readings differ by so much.

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.

8 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the Dream XLS but cross it with the Perpetua (FiiO BTR11, FiiO K11 R2R, Lake People G103-S Mk II, 5 more).

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: DITA Audio Dream XLS and DITA Audio Perpetua. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones DITA Audio never published — what that maker publishes, counted.