Tanchjim LUNA vs Tanchjim Space

Both are dongles, $140 against $70. 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 Tanchjim LUNA reaches 100 dB on 565 of the 567 models here, the Tanchjim Space on 561.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationTanchjim LUNATanchjim Space
Power into 32Ω285 mW125 mW
Power into 150Ω80 mW27 mW
Power into 300Ω54 mW13 mW
Power into 600Ω27 mW6.7 mW
Output impedancenot publishednot published
Output noise1.3 µV1.1 µV
Price$140$70
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
565561

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

LoadTanchjim LUNATanchjim Space
32 ΩPublishedUpper bound
150 ΩDerivedUpper bound
300 ΩPublishedUpper bound
600 ΩDerivedUpper bound

These two columns are not the same kind of number, and that matters more than the gap between them. Tanchjim LUNA publishes a power rating (at 32 Ω and at 300 Ω); Tanchjim Space publishes no power figure at any load, only a maximum output voltage, so every milliwatt in its column is a ceiling worked out from that voltage.

A ceiling assumes the amplifier holds that voltage into the load, and nothing on Tanchjim Space’s own sheet says it does. It is the most flattering reading available, and it is used here only because the alternative is a blank. Where the Tanchjim Space column looks the stronger of the two, treat the difference as unproven rather than measured. 24 of the 280 sources here are in that position, with no published power rating at any load.

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

4 headphones reach 100 dB on the Tanchjim LUNA but not on the Tanchjim Space — Moondrop COSMO, Symphonium Crimson, Symphonium Helios, 1 more.

561 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 Sennheiser HD 600: Tanchjim LUNA has +9 dB of headroom there against +3 dB. 6 dB is about 4.1 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

Hiss is this source’s own noise, in decibels SPL, in that headphone — not a rating. Below about 20 dB SPL it is under the threshold of hearing in a quiet room; a negative figure means it is far below it.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsTanchjim LUNA headroomTanchjim Space headroomTanchjim LUNA hissTanchjim Space hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+34 dB+29 dB17 dB15 dB
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+14 dB+9 dB-3 dB-5 dB
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+23 dB+19 dB-5 dB-7 dB
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+20 dB+14 dB-10 dB-11 dB
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+15 dB+11 dB-11 dB-12 dB
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+13 dB+7 dB-16 dB-18 dB
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+9 dB+3 dB-21 dB-22 dB
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW+5 dB+1 dB-23 dB-24 dB

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Tanchjim LUNA costs $70 more than the Tanchjim Space. Out of the 567 models here, that difference buys 4 more models driven to 100 dB.

Nothing runs the other way: there is no axis here on which the cheaper of the two does better.

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: Tanchjim LUNA and Tanchjim Space. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.

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