MK10 ArcSonics vs MK12 Turris: which needs more amplifier?

The Hidizs MK10 ArcSonics is 32Ω at 113.0 dB (no reference unit printed); the Hidizs MK12 Turris is 32Ω at 111.0 dB (no reference unit printed). 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 MK12 Turris needs 2.0 dB more than the MK10 ArcSonics to reach the same loudness — 0.08 mW against 0.05 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationMK10 ArcSonicsMK12 Turris
Impedance32 Ω32 Ω
Sensitivity113.0 dB111.0 dB
Sensitivity (voltage)127.9 dB/V125.9 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.05 mW0.08 mW
Voltage for 100 dB40 mV50 mV
Current for 100 dB1.3 mA1.6 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
4.00 Ω4.00 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

One caution before reading the rows. Hidizs MK10 ArcSonics and Hidizs MK12 Turris printed a decibel figure with no reference unit, so this page reads it as per milliwatt. If it is really per volt, each of them 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.

2 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the MK12 Turris but cross it with the MK10 ArcSonics (Grace Design m900, FiiO K17).

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 MK12 Turris is more demanding than 12% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the MK10 ArcSonics than 7%. 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 SPLMK10 ArcSonics powerMK10 ArcSonics voltageMK12 Turris powerMK12 Turris voltage
800.5 µW4 mV0.8 µW5 mV
851.6 µW7 mV2.5 µW9 mV
905.0 µW13 mV7.9 µW16 mV
950.02 mW23 mV0.03 mW28 mV
1000.05 mW40 mV0.08 mW50 mV
1050.16 mW71 mV0.25 mW90 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.

The cheapest source that satisfies both

SourcePriceHeadroom, MK10 ArcSonicsHeadroom, MK12 TurrisOutput impedanceNoise
JadeAudio JA11$2027.8 dB25.8 dB0.5 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO KA11$2936.0 dB34.0 dB0.7 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO BTR13$5933.0 dB31.0 dB0.6 Ω1.0 µV

Of the 280 sources here, 280 reach 100 dB on both. That is the easy axis. 55 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 55 is the JadeAudio JA11, at $20. It leaves 27.8 dB of headroom on the MK10 ArcSonics and 25.8 dB on the MK12 Turris, its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 4.00 Ω for both, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 7 dB and 9 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
MK10 ArcSonics20Hz-40kHznot printednot printed
MK12 Turris10Hz-45kHznot printednot printed

Hidizs prints 20Hz-40kHz for the MK10 ArcSonics and 10Hz-45kHz for the MK12 Turris.

MK10 ArcSonics: Hidizs prints this figure in the body copy of the product page, under a heading about Hi-Res certification, and not in a specification table.

MK12 Turris: Printed as a marketing headline. The page separately says the response was measured on a B&K HATS with a G.R.A.S. coupler, but prints no tolerance, so the range itself still carries no level.

Neither range has a tolerance printed beside it, and that is the whole of what this section can tell you. A wider range on one sheet is not deeper bass or more treble on that headphone: without a tolerance, neither number says how loud either model is at the ends of its own range, so the difference between the two is a difference between two pieces of marketing copy. A ±dB figure is what turns a range into a specification, and of the 490 models whose maker prints a range, 58 print it.

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: Hidizs MK10 ArcSonics and Hidizs MK12 Turris. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones Hidizs never published — what that maker publishes, counted.

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