The Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020 is 9Ω at 94.0 dB (no figure from the maker at all); the Campfire Audio Chimera is 5.5Ω at 108.1 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 Andromeda 2020 needs 14.1 dB more than the Chimera to reach the same loudness — 4.0 mW against 0.15 mW.
| Specification | Andromeda 2020 | Chimera |
|---|---|---|
| Impedance | 9 Ω | 5.5 Ω |
| Sensitivity | 94.0 dB | 108.1 dB/mW |
| Sensitivity (voltage) | 114.5 dB/V | 130.7 dB/V |
| Power for 100 dB | 4.0 mW | 0.15 mW |
| Voltage for 100 dB | 0.19 V | 29 mV |
| Current for 100 dB | 21.0 mA | 5.3 mA |
| Highest source impedance that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule) | 1.12 Ω | 0.69 Ω |
| Sources that reach 100 dB out of 280 | 279 | 280 |
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.
1 of the 280 sources has the power for the Chimera but not for the Andromeda 2020 — Steinberg UR22C.
43 sources are low enough in output impedance for the Andromeda 2020 under the one-eighth rule but not for the Chimera (FiiO SnowSky Tiny B, FiiO KA11, JDS Labs Atom+ (2nd gen), 40 more).
28 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the Andromeda 2020 but cross it with the Chimera (Kiwi Ears Allegro Mini, FiiO BTR11, Fosi Audio SK02, 25 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.
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 Chimera than 3%. 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 SPL | Andromeda 2020 power | Andromeda 2020 voltage | Chimera power | Chimera voltage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | 0.04 mW | 19 mV | 1.5 µW | 3 mV |
| 85 | 0.13 mW | 34 mV | 4.9 µW | 5 mV |
| 90 | 0.40 mW | 60 mV | 0.02 mW | 9 mV |
| 95 | 1.3 mW | 0.11 V | 0.05 mW | 16 mV |
| 100 | 4.0 mW | 0.19 V | 0.15 mW | 29 mV |
| 105 | 13 mW | 0.34 V | 0.49 mW | 52 mV |
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.
| Source | Price | Headroom, Andromeda 2020 | Headroom, Chimera | Output impedance | Noise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JadeAudio JA11 | $20 | 3.3 dB | 15.2 dB | 0.5 Ω | 1.7 µV |
| FiiO BTR13 | $59 | 12.3 dB | 24.3 dB | 0.6 Ω | 1.0 µV |
| iBasso DC03 Pro | $69 | 8.4 dB | 20.4 dB | 0.12 Ω | 0.9 µV |
Of the 280 sources here, 279 reach 100 dB on both. That is the easy axis. 25 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 25 is the JadeAudio JA11, at $20. It leaves 3.3 dB of headroom on the Andromeda 2020 and 15.2 dB on the Chimera, its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 1.12 Ω and 0.69 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 21 dB and 5 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.
| Model | As printed | Tolerance | Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andromeda 2020 | nothing printed | — | — |
| Chimera | 5-20 kHz | not printed | not printed |
Campfire Audio prints nothing at all for the Andromeda 2020 and 5-20 kHz for the Chimera.
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 Chimera 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.
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 2020 and Campfire Audio Chimera. 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.