Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80Ω) vs ZMF Verite Closed: which needs more amplifier?

The Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80Ω) is 80Ω at 96.0 dB (no reference unit printed); the ZMF Verite Closed is 300Ω at 99.0 dB/mW. This page is only about what they ask of an amplifier — not how they sound, which no specification on either sheet can tell you.

The Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80Ω) needs 3.0 dB more than the ZMF Verite Closed to reach the same loudness — 2.5 mW against 1.3 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationBeyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80Ω)ZMF Verite Closed
Impedance80 Ω300 Ω
Sensitivity96.0 dB99.0 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)107.0 dB/V104.2 dB/V
Power for 100 dB2.5 mW1.3 mW
Voltage for 100 dB0.45 V0.61 V
Current for 100 dB5.6 mA2.0 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
10.00 Ω37.50 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

One caution before reading the rows. Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80Ω) printed a decibel figure with no reference unit, so this page reads it as per milliwatt. If it is really per volt, that model needs far more than the table says. Why the two readings differ by so much.

Where the two part company

Every source in the database that drives one of them drives the other. On power, the choice between these two changes nothing about what amplifier you need.

10 sources are low enough in output impedance for the ZMF Verite Closed under the one-eighth rule but not for the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80Ω) (Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 4th gen, Schiit Valhalla 2, Zoom UAC-232, 7 more).

280 of the 280 sources here reach 100 dB on both. That count is about power only — the output-impedance and hiss lines above are separate questions, and a source can pass this one and fail those.

What each one needs from 80 to 105 dB

The gap between these two in decibels does not change with volume — it is a property of the two headphones. What changes is the size of the numbers, and it changes fast: every 10 dB costs ten times the power. The row that matters is the one nearest the level you listen at, and for most people that is nearer the top of this table than the bottom.

The ZMF Verite Closed is more demanding than 91% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80Ω) than 84%. Both figures use the same measure as the rest of the site: whichever runs out first against a 2 V, 100 mW dongle, voltage or power.

dB SPLBeyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80Ω) powerBeyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80Ω) voltageZMF Verite Closed powerZMF Verite Closed voltage
800.03 mW45 mV0.01 mW61 mV
850.08 mW80 mV0.04 mW0.11 V
900.25 mW0.14 V0.13 mW0.19 V
950.79 mW0.25 V0.40 mW0.35 V
1002.5 mW0.45 V1.3 mW0.61 V
1057.9 mW0.80 V4.0 mW1.09 V

105 dB is included because forum power figures are usually quoted there or higher. It is also a level that damages hearing in minutes — how many minutes is its own calculator.

The cheapest source that satisfies both

SourcePriceHeadroom, Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80Ω)Headroom, ZMF Verite ClosedOutput impedanceNoise
JadeAudio JA11$206.8 dB4.1 dB0.5 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO KA11$2915.1 dB12.4 dB0.7 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO BTR11$366.7 dB3.8 dB0.5 Ω8.0 µV

Of the 280 sources here, 280 reach 100 dB on both. That is the easy axis. 71 of them also publish an output impedance low enough for both under the one-eighth rule and a noise figure that stays below the audible-hiss threshold with both — the rest either fail one of those or never printed the number at all, and 208 of them are in the second group.

The cheapest of the 71 is the JadeAudio JA11, at $20. It leaves 6.8 dB of headroom on the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80Ω) and 4.1 dB on the ZMF Verite Closed, its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 10.00 Ω and 37.50 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 28 dB and 31 dB below the 20 dB SPL this site treats as the point where a quiet room stops hiding it.

Cheapest that satisfies three published numbers is not the same as best, and none of it is about how either headphone sounds. To put either model against a source this page does not mention, or to change the target loudness, use the amplifier matcher.

What each sheet prints, and what it is worth

ModelAs printedToleranceStandard
Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80Ω)5 - 35.000 Hznot printednot printed
ZMF Verite Closednothing printed——

Beyerdynamic prints 5 - 35.000 Hz for the DT 770 Pro (80Ω). ZMF prints nothing at all for the Verite Closed.

So one side of this comparison has a frequency-response number and the other does not — which changes less than it looks. The range printed for the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80Ω) comes with no tolerance beside it, and a range without a ±dB figure says nothing about how loud the headphone is at either end of it: thirty decibels down at the bottom and the sentence would still be true. On the only reading that would have made it a specification, the two sheets say the same amount: nothing.

None of this is a measurement. What each maker publishes, and what it is worth, is set out in the frequency response audit.

Both pages in full

Each model has a page of its own with the full source list, the hiss estimate and the provenance of every figure above: Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80Ω) and ZMF Verite Closed. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones Beyerdynamic and ZMF never published — what Beyerdynamic publishes and what ZMF publishes, both counted.

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