Giant vs Titan: which needs more amplifier?

The Symphonium Giant is 7.0Ω at 88.5 dB/mW; the Symphonium Titan is 3.0Ω at 79.8 dB/mW. This page covers what they ask of an amplifier, not how they sound.

The Titan needs 8.7 dB more than the Giant to reach the same loudness — 105 mW against 14 mW.

Side by side

The numbers that decide it

Specification	Giant	Titan
Impedance	7.0 Ω	3.0 Ω
Sensitivity	88.5 dB/mW	79.8 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)	110.0 dB/V	105.0 dB/V
Power for 100 dB	14 mW	105 mW
Voltage for 100 dB	0.31 V	0.56 V
Current for 100 dB	44.9 mA	186.8 mA
Highest source impedance that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)	0.88 Ω	0.38 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB out of 280	252	85

What separates them

Where the two part company

167 of the 280 sources have the power for the Giant but not for the Titan — FiiO SnowSky Tiny A, FiiO SnowSky Tiny B, FiiO KA11, 164 more.

33 sources are low enough in output impedance for the Giant under the one-eighth rule but not for the Titan (JadeAudio JA11, FiiO SnowSky Tiny A, FiiO KA11, 30 more).

85 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 Titan is more demanding than 100% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the Giant than 76%.

dB SPL	Giant power	Giant voltage	Titan power	Titan voltage
80	0.14 mW	31 mV	1.0 mW	56 mV
85	0.45 mW	56 mV	3.3 mW	100 mV
90	1.4 mW	99 mV	10 mW	0.18 V
95	4.5 mW	0.18 V	33 mW	0.32 V
100	14 mW	0.31 V	105 mW	0.56 V
105	45 mW	0.56 V	331 mW	1.00 V

What drives both

The cheapest source that satisfies both

Source	Price	Headroom, Giant	Headroom, Titan	Output impedance	Noise
Schiit Magni Unity	$119	19.7 dB	7.3 dB	0.1 Ω	1.59 µV
Topping L30 II	$149	20.4 dB	8.0 dB	0.1 Ω	0.3 µV
SMSL HO100	$160	19.7 dB	7.3 dB	<0.1 Ω	1.3 µV

Of the 280 sources here, 85 reach 100 dB on both. 22 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 22 is the Schiit Magni Unity, at $119. It leaves 19.7 dB of headroom on the Giant and 7.3 dB on the Titan, its output impedance is 0.1 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 0.88 Ω and 0.38 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 26 dB and 31 dB below the 20 dB SPL this site treats as the point where a quiet room stops hiding it.

Try any other source.

Frequency response

What each sheet prints, and what it is worth

Model	As printed	Tolerance	Standard
Giant	5Hz - 18kHz, ± 2 dB	±2 dB	not printed
Titan	8Hz - 24kHz, ± 2 dB	±2 dB	not printed

Symphonium prints 5Hz - 18kHz, ± 2 dB for the Giant and 8Hz - 24kHz, ± 2 dB for the Titan.

Both sheets print a tolerance, which is rare enough to be worth pointing at: only 58 of the 490 models with a printed range do. These two ranges can be set against each other, because each of them says how far down the response is allowed to be at the ends.

Not a measurement; maker by maker.

Both pages in full

Both have a page of their own. In full: Symphonium Giant and Symphonium Titan. Every figure on this page comes from what Symphonium published, or is derived from it — what that maker publishes, counted.