Kinera Freya Vanir: how much amplifier do you need?

The Kinera Freya Vanir is 16Ω with a sensitivity of 88.0 dB/mW, which is 106.0 dB/V. To reach 100 dB SPL — genuinely loud, louder than most people listen — it needs 16 mW, or 0.50 V across the drivers.

That is a moderate load. Most USB dongles handle it without complaint; the weakest phone outputs will run out of volume before they run out of quality. 252 of 280 sources here have enough headroom. The cheapest portable source that does the job is the FiiO SnowSky Tiny A at $22.

Sensitivity here is in dB per milliwatt. Why the unit matters.

Kinera publishes this as 106 dB/Vrms (@ 1kHz) — a figure per volt, not per milliwatt. At 16Ω the two differ by 18.0 dB, so the 88.0 dB/mW above is that published number converted, not a different measurement.

This is the conversion that online calculators skip. Quote the per-volt number as if it were per-milliwatt and this headphone looks 18 dB easier to drive than it is — which is roughly the difference between a dongle being enough and not being enough.

Source: kineraaudio.com. How this data was built.

Most people listen between 75 and 85 dB; the 100 dB row leaves room for peaks.

The 15 cheapest of the 280 sources here that reach 100 dB SPL into 16Ω with at least 10 dB of headroom and no known hiss or output-impedance problem with these headphones. All 280 sources, judged for these headphones.

Hiss. At 106.0 dB/V these are sensitive enough to reveal a source's own noise floor. The noisiest source in the database, the Schiit Mjolnir 3, would put its hiss at roughly 14 dB SPL in these headphones — clearly audible in quiet passages. Check your own source.

Output impedance. At 16Ω these want a source output impedance below 2.00Ω to satisfy the one-eighth rule; 35 of the 192 sources that publish one miss it. Check yours here.

Compared with its stablemates: vs Loki Divine Mark · vs Mimisbrunnr · vs Nott Phantom · vs Sylvie.

Compare any two or browse all 578. Every Kinera headphone here.