105 AER vs Empyrean: which needs more amplifier?

The Meze 105 AER is 42Ω at 112.0 dB/mW; the Meze Empyrean is 32Ω at 100.0 dB (no figure from the maker at all). This page covers what they ask of an amplifier, not how they sound.

The Empyrean needs 12.0 dB more than the 105 AER to reach the same loudness — 1.0 mW against 0.06 mW.

Side by side

The numbers that decide it

Specification	105 AER	Empyrean
Impedance	42 Ω	32 Ω
Sensitivity	112.0 dB/mW	100.0 dB
Sensitivity (voltage)	125.8 dB/V	114.9 dB/V
Power for 100 dB	0.06 mW	1.0 mW
Voltage for 100 dB	51 mV	0.18 V
Current for 100 dB	1.2 mA	5.6 mA
Highest source impedance that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)	5.25 Ω	4.00 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB out of 280	280	280

One caution before reading the rows. For Meze Empyrean 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.

What separates them

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 105 AER under the one-eighth rule but not for the Empyrean (Shanling H5).

14 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the Empyrean but cross it with the 105 AER (FiiO BTR11, FiiO K11 R2R, Lake People G103-S Mk II, 11 more).

280 of the 280 sources here reach 100 dB on both.

At the level you actually listen at

What each one needs from 80 to 105 dB

The Empyrean is more demanding than 54% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the 105 AER than 12%.

dB SPL	105 AER power	105 AER voltage	Empyrean power	Empyrean voltage
80	0.6 µW	5 mV	0.01 mW	18 mV
85	2.0 µW	9 mV	0.03 mW	32 mV
90	6.3 µW	16 mV	0.10 mW	57 mV
95	0.02 mW	29 mV	0.32 mW	0.10 V
100	0.06 mW	51 mV	1.0 mW	0.18 V
105	0.20 mW	92 mV	3.2 mW	0.32 V

What drives both

The cheapest source that satisfies both

Source	Price	Headroom, 105 AER	Headroom, Empyrean	Output impedance	Noise
JadeAudio JA11	$20	25.6 dB	14.8 dB	0.5 Ω	1.7 µV
FiiO KA11	$29	33.8 dB	23.0 dB	0.7 Ω	1.7 µV
FiiO BTR13	$59	30.8 dB	20.0 dB	0.6 Ω	1.0 µV

Of the 280 sources here, 280 reach 100 dB on both. 57 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 cheapest of the 57 is the JadeAudio JA11, at $20. It leaves 25.6 dB of headroom on the 105 AER and 14.8 dB on the Empyrean, its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 5.25 Ω and 4.00 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 10 dB and 20 dB below the 20 dB SPL this site treats as the point where a quiet room stops hiding it.

Try any other source.

Both pages in full

Both have a page of their own. In full: Meze 105 AER and Meze Empyrean. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones Meze never published — what that maker publishes, counted.