Meteor vs Triton: which needs more amplifier?

The Symphonium Meteor is 9.7Ω at 90.9 dB/mW; the Symphonium Triton is 8.3Ω at 86.2 dB/mW. This page covers what they ask of an amplifier, not how they sound.

The Triton needs 4.7 dB more than the Meteor to reach the same loudness — 24 mW against 8.1 mW.

Side by side

The numbers that decide it

Specification	Meteor	Triton
Impedance	9.7 Ω	8.3 Ω
Sensitivity	90.9 dB/mW	86.2 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)	111.0 dB/V	107.0 dB/V
Power for 100 dB	8.1 mW	24 mW
Voltage for 100 dB	0.28 V	0.45 V
Current for 100 dB	28.9 mA	53.8 mA
Highest source impedance that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)	1.21 Ω	1.04 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB out of 280	271	229

What separates them

Where the two part company

42 of the 280 sources have the power for the Meteor but not for the Triton — Apple USB-C dongle (US), Generic CX31993 dongles, JadeAudio JA11, 39 more.

4 sources are low enough in output impedance for the Meteor under the one-eighth rule but not for the Triton (FiiO K11, FiiO BTR7, FiiO Q7, 1 more).

229 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 Triton is more demanding than 86% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the Meteor than 71%.

dB SPL	Meteor power	Meteor voltage	Triton power	Triton voltage
80	0.08 mW	28 mV	0.24 mW	45 mV
85	0.26 mW	50 mV	0.76 mW	79 mV
90	0.81 mW	89 mV	2.4 mW	0.14 V
95	2.6 mW	0.16 V	7.6 mW	0.25 V
100	8.1 mW	0.28 V	24 mW	0.45 V
105	26 mW	0.50 V	76 mW	0.79 V

What drives both

The cheapest source that satisfies both

Source	Price	Headroom, Meteor	Headroom, Triton	Output impedance	Noise
FiiO KA11	$29	12.6 dB	7.2 dB	0.7 Ω	1.7 µV
FiiO BTR13	$59	9.5 dB	4.1 dB	0.6 Ω	1.0 µV
iBasso DC03 Pro	$69	5.6 dB	0.3 dB	0.12 Ω	0.9 µV

Of the 280 sources here, 229 reach 100 dB on both. 61 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 61 is the FiiO KA11, at $29. It leaves 12.6 dB of headroom on the Meteor and 7.2 dB on the Triton, its output impedance is 0.7 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 1.21 Ω and 1.04 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 24 dB and 28 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
Triton	11Hz - 21kHz, ± 3 dB	±3 dB	not printed

Symphonium prints 12Hz - 21kHz, ± 3 dB for the Meteor and 11Hz - 21kHz, ± 3 dB for the Triton.

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 Triton. Every figure on this page comes from what Symphonium published, or is derived from it — what that maker publishes, counted.