Blessing 2 Dusk vs ILLUSTRIOUS: which needs more amplifier?

The Moondrop Blessing 2 Dusk is 22Ω at 106.0 dB (no figure from the maker at all); the Moondrop ILLUSTRIOUS is 25Ω at 108.0 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 Blessing 2 Dusk needs 2.0 dB more than the ILLUSTRIOUS to reach the same loudness — 0.25 mW against 0.16 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationBlessing 2 DuskILLUSTRIOUS
Impedance22 Ω25 Ω
Sensitivity106.0 dB108.0 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)122.6 dB/V124.0 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.25 mW0.16 mW
Voltage for 100 dB74 mV63 mV
Current for 100 dB3.4 mA2.5 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
2.75 Ω3.12 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

One caution before reading the rows. For Moondrop Blessing 2 Dusk 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.

3 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the Blessing 2 Dusk but cross it with the ILLUSTRIOUS (FiiO K11 R2R, Lake People G111 Mk II, RME Babyface Pro FS).

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: Moondrop Blessing 2 Dusk and Moondrop ILLUSTRIOUS. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones Moondrop never published — what that maker publishes, counted.