Focal Clear MG vs Meze 99 Classics: which needs more amplifier?

The Focal Clear MG is 55Ω at 104.0 dB/mW; the Meze 99 Classics is 32Ω at 103.0 dB/mW. 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 Meze 99 Classics needs 1.0 dB more than the Focal Clear MG to reach the same loudness — 0.50 mW against 0.40 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationFocal Clear MGMeze 99 Classics
Impedance55 Ω32 Ω
Sensitivity104.0 dB/mW103.0 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)116.6 dB/V117.9 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.40 mW0.50 mW
Voltage for 100 dB0.15 V0.13 V
Current for 100 dB2.7 mA4.0 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
6.88 Ω4.00 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

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 Focal Clear MG under the one-eighth rule but not for the Meze 99 Classics (Shanling H5).

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: Focal Clear MG and Meze 99 Classics. Every figure on this page comes from what Focal and Meze published, or is derived from it — what Focal publishes and what Meze publishes, both counted.