Meteor vs Titan: which needs more amplifier?

The Symphonium Meteor is 9.7Ω at 90.9 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 11.1 dB more than the Meteor to reach the same loudness — 105 mW against 8.1 mW.

Side by side

The numbers that decide it

Specification	Meteor	Titan
Impedance	9.7 Ω	3.0 Ω
Sensitivity	90.9 dB/mW	79.8 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)	111.0 dB/V	105.0 dB/V
Power for 100 dB	8.1 mW	105 mW
Voltage for 100 dB	0.28 V	0.56 V
Current for 100 dB	28.9 mA	186.8 mA
Highest source impedance that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)	1.21 Ω	0.38 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB out of 280	271	85

What separates them

Where the two part company

186 of the 280 sources have the power for the Meteor but not for the Titan — Apple USB-C dongle (US), Generic CX31993 dongles, JadeAudio JA11, 183 more.

71 sources are low enough in output impedance for the Meteor under the one-eighth rule but not for the Titan (JadeAudio JA11, FiiO SnowSky Tiny A, FiiO SnowSky Tiny B, 68 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 Meteor than 71%.

dB SPL	Meteor power	Meteor voltage	Titan power	Titan voltage
80	0.08 mW	28 mV	1.0 mW	56 mV
85	0.26 mW	50 mV	3.3 mW	100 mV
90	0.81 mW	89 mV	10 mW	0.18 V
95	2.6 mW	0.16 V	33 mW	0.32 V
100	8.1 mW	0.28 V	105 mW	0.56 V
105	26 mW	0.50 V	331 mW	1.00 V

What drives both

The cheapest source that satisfies both

Source	Price	Headroom, Meteor	Headroom, Titan	Output impedance	Noise
Schiit Magni Unity	$119	23.5 dB	7.3 dB	0.1 Ω	1.59 µV
Topping L30 II	$149	24.2 dB	8.0 dB	0.1 Ω	0.3 µV
SMSL HO100	$160	23.5 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 23.5 dB of headroom on the Meteor and 7.3 dB on the Titan, its output impedance is 0.1 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 1.21 Ω and 0.38 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 25 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
Meteor	12Hz - 21kHz, ± 3 dB	±3 dB	not printed
Titan	8Hz - 24kHz, ± 2 dB	±2 dB	not printed

Symphonium prints 12Hz - 21kHz, ± 3 dB for the Meteor 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 Meteor and Symphonium Titan. Every figure on this page comes from what Symphonium published, or is derived from it — what that maker publishes, counted.