Cadenza12 vs Mystic 8: which needs more amplifier?

The Letshuoer Cadenza12 is 16Ω at 110.0 dB/mW; the Letshuoer Mystic 8 is 18Ω at 107.0 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 Mystic 8 needs 3.0 dB more than the Cadenza12 to reach the same loudness — 0.20 mW against 0.10 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationCadenza12Mystic 8
Impedance16 Ω18 Ω
Sensitivity110.0 dB/mW107.0 dB
Sensitivity (voltage)128.0 dB/V124.4 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.10 mW0.20 mW
Voltage for 100 dB40 mV60 mV
Current for 100 dB2.5 mA3.3 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
2.00 Ω2.25 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

One caution before reading the rows. Letshuoer Mystic 8 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.

7 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the Mystic 8 but cross it with the Cadenza12 (Grace Design m900, FiiO M33 R2R, FiiO K17, 4 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: Letshuoer Cadenza12 and Letshuoer Mystic 8. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones Letshuoer never published — what that maker publishes, counted.