Helios vs Titan: which needs more amplifier?

The Symphonium Helios is 8.5Ω at 83.3 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 3.5 dB more than the Helios to reach the same loudness — 105 mW against 47 mW.

Side by side

The numbers that decide it

Specification	Helios	Titan
Impedance	8.5 Ω	3.0 Ω
Sensitivity	83.3 dB/mW	79.8 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)	104.0 dB/V	105.0 dB/V
Power for 100 dB	47 mW	105 mW
Voltage for 100 dB	0.63 V	0.56 V
Current for 100 dB	74.2 mA	186.8 mA
Highest source impedance that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)	1.06 Ω	0.38 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB out of 280	179	85

What separates them

Where the two part company

94 of the 280 sources have the power for the Helios but not for the Titan — FiiO KA11, ddHiFi TC35Air, ddHiFi TC35AL, 91 more.

67 sources are low enough in output impedance for the Helios under the one-eighth rule but not for the Titan (JadeAudio JA11, FiiO SnowSky Tiny A, FiiO SnowSky Tiny B, 64 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 Helios than 98%.

dB SPL	Helios power	Helios voltage	Titan power	Titan voltage
80	0.47 mW	63 mV	1.0 mW	56 mV
85	1.5 mW	0.11 V	3.3 mW	100 mV
90	4.7 mW	0.20 V	10 mW	0.18 V
95	15 mW	0.35 V	33 mW	0.32 V
100	47 mW	0.63 V	105 mW	0.56 V
105	148 mW	1.12 V	331 mW	1.00 V

What drives both

The cheapest source that satisfies both

Source	Price	Headroom, Helios	Headroom, Titan	Output impedance	Noise
Schiit Magni Unity	$119	15.3 dB	7.3 dB	0.1 Ω	1.59 µV
Topping L30 II	$149	16.0 dB	8.0 dB	0.1 Ω	0.3 µV
SMSL HO100	$160	15.3 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 15.3 dB of headroom on the Helios and 7.3 dB on the Titan, its output impedance is 0.1 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 1.06 Ω and 0.38 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 32 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
Helios	12Hz - 24kHz, ± 2 dB	±2 dB	not printed
Titan	8Hz - 24kHz, ± 2 dB	±2 dB	not printed

Symphonium prints 12Hz - 24kHz, ± 2 dB for the Helios 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 Helios and Symphonium Titan. Every figure on this page comes from what Symphonium published, or is derived from it — what that maker publishes, counted.