Arturia MiniFuse 1 vs IK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE

Both are audio interfaces, $149 against $130. 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 Arturia MiniFuse 1 reaches 100 dB on 562 of the 567 models here, the IK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE on 550.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationArturia MiniFuse 1IK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE
Power into 32Ω139 mW26 mW
Power into 150Ω45 mW13 mW
Power into 300Ω24 mW6.7 mW
Power into 600Ω12 mW3.3 mW
Output impedance10 Ω<0.1 Ω
Output noisenot publishednot published
Price$149$130
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
562550

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.

Where each power figure comes from

LoadArturia MiniFuse 1IK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE
32 ΩDerivedDerived
150 ΩDerivedDerived
300 ΩDerivedDerived
600 ΩDerivedDerived

Neither column is a maker’s power rating at these loads. Of the 280 sources here, 209 publish a figure at at least one load; these two do not, so every row above is derived — between or beyond the loads each maker did publish, holding output voltage as the maker’s own figures imply. The method understates rather than flatters, but it is still arithmetic rather than a rating.

What each of these labels means, and why a derived figure is still worth printing, is set out in how this data was built.

The headphones that tell them apart

12 headphones reach 100 dB on the Arturia MiniFuse 1 but not on the IK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE — HiFiMAN HE-6se V2, HiFiMAN HE6 Remastered, HiFiMAN Susvara, 9 more.

510 headphones are left alone by the IK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE under the one-eighth rule but coloured by the Arturia MiniFuse 1 (64 Audio Aspire 1, 64 Audio Fourte, 64 Audio Nio, 507 more).

550 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.

Headroom and hiss on 8 models, both sources

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 Shure SE846: Arturia MiniFuse 1 has +30 dB of headroom there against +23 dB. 7 dB is about 5.4 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for Arturia MiniFuse 1 and IK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE because neither 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.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsArturia MiniFuse 1 headroomIK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE headroomArturia MiniFuse 1 hissIK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+30 dB damping+23 dBnot publishednot published
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+10 dB damping+3 dBnot publishednot published
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+20 dB damping+16 dBnot publishednot published
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+17 dB+11 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+11 dB damping+4 dBnot publishednot published
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+10 dB+4 dBnot publishednot published
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+6 dB+0 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW+2 dB damping-2 dBnot publishednot published

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Arturia MiniFuse 1 costs $19 more than the IK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE. Out of the 567 models here, that difference buys 12 more models driven to 100 dB.

It does not run one way only: the cheaper IK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE leaves 510 models alone under the one-eighth rule that the Arturia MiniFuse 1 does not, which is the part worth checking against your own headphones before paying the difference.

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.

Both pages in full

Each has a page of its own with every power figure traced to what the maker published and a full headphone list: Arturia MiniFuse 1 and IK Multimedia AXE I/O ONE. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.

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