Listen Professional vs Utopia 2022: which needs more amplifier?

The Focal Listen Professional is 32Ω at 107.1 dB/mW; the Focal Utopia 2022 is 80Ω at 104.0 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 Utopia 2022 needs 3.1 dB more than the Listen Professional to reach the same loudness — 0.40 mW against 0.19 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationListen ProfessionalUtopia 2022
Impedance32 Ω80 Ω
Sensitivity107.1 dB/mW104.0 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)122.0 dB/V115.0 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.19 mW0.40 mW
Voltage for 100 dB79 mV0.18 V
Current for 100 dB2.5 mA2.2 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
4.00 Ω10.00 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.

10 sources are low enough in output impedance for the Utopia 2022 under the one-eighth rule but not for the Listen Professional (Zoom AMS-22, Arturia MiniFuse 2, Arturia MiniFuse 1, 7 more).

2 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the Utopia 2022 but cross it with the Listen Professional (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: Focal Listen Professional and Focal Utopia 2022. Every figure on this page comes from what Focal published, or is derived from it — what that maker publishes, counted.