HiFiMAN Arya Organic vs Sony MDR-7506: which needs more amplifier?

The HiFiMAN Arya Organic is 16Ω at 94.0 dB (no reference unit printed); the Sony MDR-7506 is 63Ω at 106.0 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 HiFiMAN Arya Organic needs 12.0 dB more than the Sony MDR-7506 to reach the same loudness — 4.0 mW against 0.25 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationHiFiMAN Arya OrganicSony MDR-7506
Impedance16 Ω63 Ω
Sensitivity94.0 dB106.0 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)112.0 dB/V118.0 dB/V
Power for 100 dB4.0 mW0.25 mW
Voltage for 100 dB0.25 V0.13 V
Current for 100 dB15.8 mA2.0 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
2.00 Ω7.88 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

One caution before reading the rows. HiFiMAN Arya Organic printed a decibel figure with no reference unit, so this page reads it as per milliwatt. If it is really per volt, that model 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.

1 source is low enough in output impedance for the Sony MDR-7506 under the one-eighth rule but not for the HiFiMAN Arya Organic (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: HiFiMAN Arya Organic and Sony MDR-7506. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones HiFiMAN and Sony never published — what HiFiMAN publishes and what Sony publishes, both counted.