Both are audio interfaces, $649 against $899. This page puts them side by side on the only three things a maker can be held to — power, output impedance and noise — and then asks the question that actually matters: which headphones do they treat differently?
The Apogee Duet 3 reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here, the RME Babyface Pro FS on 565.
| Specification | Apogee Duet 3 | RME Babyface Pro FS |
|---|---|---|
| Power into 32Ω | 1.2 W | 374 mW |
| Power into 150Ω | 252 mW | 80 mW |
| Power into 300Ω | 126 mW | 40 mW |
| Power into 600Ω | 63 mW | 20 mW |
| Output impedance | 0.5 Ω | 10 Ω |
| Output noise | not published | 6.3 µV |
| Price | $649 | $899 |
| Headphones it reaches 100 dB on out of 567 | 567 | 565 |
A figure marked not published is missing from the maker’s own material, which is not the same as being good or bad. Where one of these two publishes a number and the other does not, the comparison on that axis cannot be made at all — and saying so is more useful than guessing.
| Load | Apogee Duet 3 | RME Babyface Pro FS |
|---|---|---|
| 32 Ω | Upper bound | Upper bound |
| 150 Ω | Upper bound | Upper bound |
| 300 Ω | Upper bound | Upper bound |
| 600 Ω | Upper bound | Upper bound |
Neither maker publishes a power rating at any load. Both columns above are ceilings, worked out from a maximum output voltage on the assumption that the amplifier holds it into the load — the most flattering reading available for either. 24 of the 280 sources here are in that position. Whichever of the two looks the stronger on power, the difference is unproven; the output-impedance and noise rows are the ones to go on.
What each of these labels means, and why a derived figure is still worth printing, is set out in how this data was built.
2 headphones reach 100 dB on the Apogee Duet 3 but not on the RME Babyface Pro FS — Moondrop PARA, Symphonium Titan.
509 headphones are left alone by the Apogee Duet 3 under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the RME Babyface Pro FS (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Nio, 506 more).
565 of the 567 models here reach 100 dB on both. That is a power count and nothing more; whether either source suits a given headphone also depends on the two lines above.
The counts above say how many models the two treat differently. This says by how much. The same 8 headphones appear on every page of this kind, ordered from the easiest to drive to the hardest, so a row can be read across pages as well as across columns. Headroom is at a 100 dB SPL peak.
The widest gap on the list is the Sennheiser HD 600: Apogee Duet 3 has +13 dB of headroom there against +8 dB. 5 dB is about 3.2 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.
The hiss columns are empty for Apogee Duet 3 because that maker publishes no output noise figure. That is a gap in the specification, not a quiet amplifier, and it is left blank here rather than filled with a plausible number.
| Headphone | Impedance | Needs | Apogee Duet 3 headroom | RME Babyface Pro FS headroom | Apogee Duet 3 hiss | RME Babyface Pro FS hiss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shure SE846 | 9 Ω | 0.04 mW | +39 dB | +34 dB damping | not published | 30 dB |
| Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020 | 9 Ω | 4.0 mW | +19 dB | +14 dB damping | not published | 10 dB |
| Audeze LCD-2 Classic | 70 Ω | 0.79 mW | +28 dB | +23 dB damping | not published | 9 dB |
| Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω) | 250 Ω | 0.63 mW | +24 dB | +19 dB | not published | 4 dB |
| HiFiMAN HE400se | 25 Ω | 7.9 mW | +21 dB | +16 dB damping | not published | 3 dB |
| Audio-Technica ATH-R70X | 470 Ω | 1.6 mW | +17 dB | +12 dB | not published | -3 dB |
| Sennheiser HD 600 | 300 Ω | 6.6 mW | +13 dB | +8 dB | not published | -7 dB |
| HiFiMAN Susvara | 60 Ω | 50 mW | +11 dB | +6 dB damping | not published | -9 dB |
The RME Babyface Pro FS costs $250 more than the Apogee Duet 3, and on these three axes the money buys nothing: among the 567 models here there is not one that the RME Babyface Pro FS handles and the Apogee Duet 3 does not — not on power, not on the one-eighth rule, not on hiss. The traffic runs the other way: the cheaper Apogee Duet 3 drives 2 models to 100 dB and leaves 509 alone under the one-eighth rule that the RME Babyface Pro FS does not.
Everything in this paragraph counts only figures the two makers published. An advantage on an axis one of them leaves blank cannot be counted, and is not counted — how often that happens is its own page.
Each has a page of its own with every power figure traced to what the maker published and a full headphone list: Apogee Duet 3 and RME Babyface Pro FS. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.