Andromeda 10 vs Andromeda 2020: which needs more amplifier?

The Campfire Audio Andromeda 10 is 8.5Ω at 111.6 dB/mW; the Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020 is 9Ω at 94.0 dB (no figure from the maker at all). 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 Andromeda 2020 needs 17.6 dB more than the Andromeda 10 to reach the same loudness — 4.0 mW against 0.07 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationAndromeda 10Andromeda 2020
Impedance8.5 Ω9 Ω
Sensitivity111.6 dB/mW94.0 dB
Sensitivity (voltage)132.3 dB/V114.5 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.07 mW4.0 mW
Voltage for 100 dB24 mV0.19 V
Current for 100 dB2.9 mA21.0 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
1.06 Ω1.12 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280279

One caution before reading the rows. For Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020 the maker publishes no sensitivity figure at all. The number in the table was collected when this database was first built and has never been traced to a manufacturer document, so treat every row below it as an estimate rather than a specification.

Where the two part company

1 of the 280 sources has the power for the Andromeda 10 but not for the Andromeda 2020 — Steinberg UR22C.

1 source is low enough in output impedance for the Andromeda 2020 under the one-eighth rule but not for the Andromeda 10 (Astell&Kern SR35).

37 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the Andromeda 2020 but cross it with the Andromeda 10 (Kiwi Ears Allegro Mini, FiiO BTR11, FiiO KA13, 34 more).

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 Andromeda 2020 is more demanding than 56% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the Andromeda 10 than 2%. 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 SPLAndromeda 10 powerAndromeda 10 voltageAndromeda 2020 powerAndromeda 2020 voltage
800.7 µW2 mV0.04 mW19 mV
852.2 µW4 mV0.13 mW34 mV
906.9 µW8 mV0.40 mW60 mV
950.02 mW14 mV1.3 mW0.11 V
1000.07 mW24 mV4.0 mW0.19 V
1050.22 mW43 mV13 mW0.34 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, Andromeda 10Headroom, Andromeda 2020Output impedanceNoise
JadeAudio JA11$2020.6 dB3.3 dB0.5 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO KA11$2932.7 dB15.4 dB0.7 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO BTR13$5929.6 dB12.3 dB0.6 Ω1.0 µV

Of the 280 sources here, 279 reach 100 dB on both. That is the easy axis. 35 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 35 is the JadeAudio JA11, at $20. It leaves 20.6 dB of headroom on the Andromeda 10 and 3.3 dB on the Andromeda 2020, its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 1.06 Ω and 1.12 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 3 dB and 21 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
Andromeda 105-20 kHznot printednot printed
Andromeda 2020nothing printed——

Campfire Audio prints 5-20 kHz for the Andromeda 10 and nothing at all for the Andromeda 2020.

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 Andromeda 10 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: Campfire Audio Andromeda 10 and Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones Campfire Audio never published — what that maker publishes, counted.

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