Mega5EST vs Okavango: which needs more amplifier?

The Hisenior Mega5EST is 25Ω at 105.0 dB/mW; the Hisenior Okavango is 20Ω at 112.0 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 Mega5EST needs 7.0 dB more than the Okavango to reach the same loudness — 0.32 mW against 0.06 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationMega5ESTOkavango
Impedance25 Ω20 Ω
Sensitivity105.0 dB/mW112.0 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)121.0 dB/V129.0 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.32 mW0.06 mW
Voltage for 100 dB89 mV36 mV
Current for 100 dB3.6 mA1.8 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
3.12 Ω2.50 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

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.

19 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the Mega5EST but cross it with the Okavango (FiiO BTR11, Fosi Audio SK02, FiiO K11 R2R, 16 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 Mega5EST is more demanding than 28% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the Okavango than 5%. 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 SPLMega5EST powerMega5EST voltageOkavango powerOkavango voltage
803.2 µW9 mV0.6 µW4 mV
850.01 mW16 mV2.0 µW6 mV
900.03 mW28 mV6.3 µW11 mV
950.10 mW50 mV0.02 mW20 mV
1000.32 mW89 mV0.06 mW36 mV
1051.0 mW0.16 V0.20 mW63 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, Mega5ESTHeadroom, OkavangoOutput impedanceNoise
JadeAudio JA11$2018.7 dB24.7 dB0.5 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO KA11$2928.2 dB35.5 dB0.7 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO BTR13$5925.2 dB32.4 dB0.6 Ω1.0 µV

Of the 280 sources here, 280 reach 100 dB on both. That is the easy axis. 53 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 53 is the JadeAudio JA11, at $20. It leaves 18.7 dB of headroom on the Mega5EST and 24.7 dB on the Okavango, its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 3.12 Ω and 2.50 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 14 dB and 6 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
Mega5EST10Hz-50Khznot printednot printed
Okavango10Hzz-30Khznot printednot printed

Hisenior prints 10Hz-50Khz for the Mega5EST and 10Hzz-30Khz for the Okavango.

Okavango: Printed as "10Hzz" with a doubled letter. Quoted here exactly as it stands on the page.

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: Hisenior Mega5EST and Hisenior Okavango. Every figure on this page comes from what Hisenior published, or is derived from it — what that maker publishes, counted.

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