T60RPmk2 vs TH-X00 (Drop): which needs more amplifier?

The Fostex T60RPmk2 is 28Ω at 96.0 dB/mW; the Fostex TH-X00 (Drop) is 25Ω at 100.0 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 T60RPmk2 needs 4.0 dB more than the TH-X00 (Drop) to reach the same loudness — 2.5 mW against 1.0 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationT60RPmk2TH-X00 (Drop)
Impedance28 Ω25 Ω
Sensitivity96.0 dB/mW100.0 dB
Sensitivity (voltage)111.5 dB/V116.0 dB/V
Power for 100 dB2.5 mW1.0 mW
Voltage for 100 dB0.27 V0.16 V
Current for 100 dB9.5 mA6.3 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
3.50 Ω3.12 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

One caution before reading the rows. For Fostex TH-X00 (Drop) 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 stays below the audible-hiss threshold with the T60RPmk2 but crosses it with the TH-X00 (Drop) (Schiit Mjolnir 3).

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.

What each one needs from 80 to 105 dB

The gap between these two in decibels does not change with volume — it is a property of the two headphones. What changes is the size of the numbers, and it changes fast: every 10 dB costs ten times the power. The row that matters is the one nearest the level you listen at, and for most people that is nearer the top of this table than the bottom.

The T60RPmk2 is more demanding than 69% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the TH-X00 (Drop) than 48%. Both figures use the same measure as the rest of the site: whichever runs out first against a 2 V, 100 mW dongle, voltage or power.

dB SPLT60RPmk2 powerT60RPmk2 voltageTH-X00 (Drop) powerTH-X00 (Drop) voltage
800.03 mW27 mV0.01 mW16 mV
850.08 mW47 mV0.03 mW28 mV
900.25 mW84 mV0.10 mW50 mV
950.79 mW0.15 V0.32 mW89 mV
1002.5 mW0.27 V1.0 mW0.16 V
1057.9 mW0.47 V3.2 mW0.28 V

105 dB is included because forum power figures are usually quoted there or higher. It is also a level that damages hearing in minutes — how many minutes is its own calculator.

The cheapest source that satisfies both

SourcePriceHeadroom, T60RPmk2Headroom, TH-X00 (Drop)Output impedanceNoise
JadeAudio JA11$2010.2 dB13.7 dB0.5 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO KA11$2919.1 dB23.2 dB0.7 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO BTR11$3611.1 dB15.3 dB0.5 Ω8.0 µV

Of the 280 sources here, 280 reach 100 dB on both. That is the easy axis. 69 of them also publish an output impedance low enough for both under the one-eighth rule and a noise figure that stays below the audible-hiss threshold with both — the rest either fail one of those or never printed the number at all, and 208 of them are in the second group.

The cheapest of the 69 is the JadeAudio JA11, at $20. It leaves 10.2 dB of headroom on the T60RPmk2 and 13.7 dB on the TH-X00 (Drop), its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 3.50 Ω and 3.12 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 24 dB and 19 dB below the 20 dB SPL this site treats as the point where a quiet room stops hiding it.

Cheapest that satisfies three published numbers is not the same as best, and none of it is about how either headphone sounds. To put either model against a source this page does not mention, or to change the target loudness, use the amplifier matcher.

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: Fostex T60RPmk2 and Fostex TH-X00 (Drop). Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones Fostex never published — what that maker publishes, counted.

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