Both are audio interfaces, $149 against $150. 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 Zoom AMS-24 on 549.
| Specification | Arturia MiniFuse 1 | Zoom AMS-24 |
|---|---|---|
| Power into 32Ω | 139 mW | 30 mW |
| Power into 150Ω | 45 mW | 9.7 mW |
| Power into 300Ω | 24 mW | 5.2 mW |
| Power into 600Ω | 12 mW | 2.7 mW |
| Output impedance | 10 Ω | 10 Ω |
| Output noise | not published | not published |
| Price | $149 | $150 |
| Headphones it reaches 100 dB on out of 567 | 562 | 549 |
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 | Arturia MiniFuse 1 | Zoom AMS-24 |
|---|---|---|
| 32 Ω | Derived | Published |
| 150 Ω | Derived | Derived |
| 300 Ω | Derived | Derived |
| 600 Ω | Derived | Derived |
Only one of these two columns starts from a power rating. Zoom AMS-24 publishes one at 32 Ω; Arturia MiniFuse 1 publishes none at any of these four loads, so its column is worked out from power it published at other loads. Both are arithmetic on a maker’s own figures rather than guesses, and the method used for the Arturia MiniFuse 1 understates rather than flatters — but at 32 Ω is the only load here at which its maker can be held to a figure.
What each of these labels means, and why a derived figure is still worth printing, is set out in how this data was built.
13 headphones reach 100 dB on the Arturia MiniFuse 1 but not on the Zoom AMS-24 — HiFiMAN HE-6se V2, HiFiMAN HE6 Remastered, HiFiMAN Susvara, 10 more.
549 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 HiFiMAN Susvara: Arturia MiniFuse 1 has +2 dB of headroom there against -4 dB. 7 dB is about 4.7 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 Zoom AMS-24 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.
| Headphone | Impedance | Needs | Arturia MiniFuse 1 headroom | Zoom AMS-24 headroom | Arturia MiniFuse 1 hiss | Zoom AMS-24 hiss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shure SE846 | 9 Ω | 0.04 mW | +30 dB damping | +23 dB damping | not published | not published |
| Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020 | 9 Ω | 4.0 mW | +10 dB damping | +3 dB damping | not published | not published |
| Audeze LCD-2 Classic | 70 Ω | 0.79 mW | +20 dB damping | +13 dB damping | not published | not published |
| Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω) | 250 Ω | 0.63 mW | +17 dB | +10 dB | not published | not published |
| HiFiMAN HE400se | 25 Ω | 7.9 mW | +11 dB damping | +5 dB damping | not published | not published |
| Audio-Technica ATH-R70X | 470 Ω | 1.6 mW | +10 dB | +3 dB | not published | not published |
| Sennheiser HD 600 | 300 Ω | 6.6 mW | +6 dB | -1 dB | not published | not published |
| HiFiMAN Susvara | 60 Ω | 50 mW | +2 dB damping | -4 dB damping | not published | not published |
The Zoom AMS-24 costs $1 more than the Arturia MiniFuse 1, and on these three axes the money buys nothing: among the 567 models here there is not one that the Zoom AMS-24 handles and the Arturia MiniFuse 1 does not — not on power, not on the one-eighth rule, not on hiss. The traffic runs the other way: the cheaper Arturia MiniFuse 1 drives 13 models to 100 dB that the Zoom AMS-24 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: Arturia MiniFuse 1 and Zoom AMS-24. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.