Will a portable player drive the Meze 109 Pro?

On power, yes — all of them. Every one of the 39 portable players in this database reaches 100 dB SPL on the Meze 109 Pro, which needs 0.06 mW at its 40Ω.

Power is one of three questions and the one that goes wrong least often. The other two — whether the source’s output impedance leaves the frequency response alone, and whether you will hear its noise floor — are answered further down, separately, because a source can pass one and fail another.

Whether it gets loud enough

The cheapest one that does reach it is the Hidizs AP80 Pro Max at $179, which delivers 56 mW into 40Ω — 29 dB of headroom over the 0.06 mW this headphone needs for 100 dB SPL.

100 dB SPL is a peak level, not a listening level. If you listen at 85 dB the same headphone needs 0.00 mW, which is 15 dB less, and the answer above changes for most of the category. The model page has the full ladder.

Whether it changes how they sound

Under the one-eighth rule the Meze 109 Pro wants a source below 5.00Ω. Of the 26 portable players here that publish an output impedance, 26 are under it and 0 are not.

The other 13 publish nothing at all on this, so they are not on either side of that count. This site leaves them blank rather than assuming a figure.

Whether you will hear it between tracks

Hiss depends on the source’s own noise floor and on how sensitive the headphone is. At 112.0 dB/mW and 40Ω, the Meze 109 Pro turns one microvolt of source noise into about 6 dB SPL — and the threshold where that stops being noticeable in a quiet room is around 20 dB SPL.

Of the 12 portable players here that publish a noise figure, 11 stay below that threshold with this headphone and 1 cross it.

The worst of them is the FiiO M33 R2R, whose published 5.5 µV works out to 21 dB SPL of hiss in these. The hiss calculator takes your own figures.

The remaining 27 publish no noise figure, so they cannot be placed on either side.

The 12 best matches in this category

SourcePriceInto 40ΩOutput impedanceHiss in thesePower verdict
Hidizs AP80 Pro Max$17956 mWnot publishednot publishedComfortable
TempoTec Variations V3 Blaze$179660 mWnot publishednot publishedComfortable
Surfans F28$180100 mWnot publishednot publishedComfortable
Hidizs AP80 Pro-X$18956 mWnot publishednot publishedComfortable
FiiO JM21$199197 mW1 Ω10 dB SPLComfortable
Shanling M1 Plus$209156 mW0.6 Ωnot publishedComfortable
Moondrop DISCDREAM2 ULTRA$35090 mWnot publishednot publishedComfortable
Sony NW-A306$35014 mWnot publishednot publishedComfortable
Shanling H5$369182 mW4.7 Ωnot publishedComfortable
TempoTec Variations V6$369264 mWnot publishednot publishedComfortable
Shanling M3 Ultra$479112 mW1 Ωnot publishedComfortable
iBasso DX180$480210 mW0.6 Ωnot publishedComfortable

Sorted by how many of the three questions the source answers well, then by price. A blank in a column is a blank in the manufacturer’s own documentation, not a zero.

The same headphone, other kinds of source

The Meze 109 Pro on other categories: Bluetooth receivers · desktop amplifiers · desktop DAC/amps · audio interfaces.

The Meze 109 Pro page has every source in the database against this headphone, and the matcher takes your own numbers.