Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X vs Dan Clark Audio Stealth: which needs more amplifier?

The Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X is 48Ω at 100.0 dB/mW; the Dan Clark Audio Stealth is 23Ω at 90.0 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 Dan Clark Audio Stealth needs 10.0 dB more than the Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X to reach the same loudness — 10 mW against 1.0 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationBeyerdynamic DT 900 Pro XDan Clark Audio Stealth
Impedance48 Ω23 Ω
Sensitivity100.0 dB/mW90.0 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)113.2 dB/V106.4 dB/V
Power for 100 dB1.0 mW10 mW
Voltage for 100 dB0.22 V0.48 V
Current for 100 dB4.6 mA20.9 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
6.00 Ω2.88 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280279

Where the two part company

1 of the 280 sources has the power for the Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X but not for the Dan Clark Audio Stealth — Steinberg UR22C.

1 source is low enough in output impedance for the Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X under the one-eighth rule but not for the Dan Clark Audio Stealth (Shanling H5).

1 source stays below the audible-hiss threshold with the Dan Clark Audio Stealth but crosses it with the Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X (Schiit Mjolnir 3).

279 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 Dan Clark Audio Stealth is more demanding than 85% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X than 62%. 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 900 Pro X powerBeyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X voltageDan Clark Audio Stealth powerDan Clark Audio Stealth voltage
800.01 mW22 mV0.10 mW48 mV
850.03 mW39 mV0.32 mW85 mV
900.10 mW69 mV1.0 mW0.15 V
950.32 mW0.12 V3.2 mW0.27 V
1001.0 mW0.22 V10 mW0.48 V
1053.2 mW0.39 V32 mW0.85 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 900 Pro XHeadroom, Dan Clark Audio StealthOutput impedanceNoise
JadeAudio JA11$2013.0 dB3.3 dB0.5 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO KA11$2921.3 dB13.3 dB0.7 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO BTR11$3613.0 dB5.5 dB0.5 Ω8.0 µV

Of the 280 sources here, 279 reach 100 dB on both. That is the easy axis. 69 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 207 of them are in the second group.

The cheapest of the 69 is the JadeAudio JA11, at $20. It leaves 13.0 dB of headroom on the Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X and 3.3 dB on the Dan Clark Audio Stealth, its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 6.00 Ω and 2.88 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 22 dB and 29 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 900 Pro X5 - 40,000 Hznot printednot printed
Dan Clark Audio Stealth“Yes, it has one”not printednot printed

Beyerdynamic prints 5 - 40,000 Hz for the DT 900 Pro X. Dan Clark Audio prints “Yes, it has one” for the Stealth.

Dan Clark Audio Stealth: The specification table has a frequency-response row. The value printed in it is the sentence "Yes, it has one".

One of these two sheets prints a range and the other prints a sentence declining to, and the second is the more informative of the two. The range given for the Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X carries no tolerance, so it says nothing about how loud that model is at either end of it — which is exactly the objection the other sheet is making out loud.

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 900 Pro X and Dan Clark Audio Stealth. Every figure on this page comes from what Beyerdynamic and Dan Clark Audio published, or is derived from it — what Beyerdynamic publishes and what Dan Clark Audio publishes, both counted.

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