Blessing 2 Dusk vs ILLUSTRIOUS: which needs more amplifier?

The Moondrop Blessing 2 Dusk is 22Ω at 106.0 dB (no figure from the maker at all); the Moondrop ILLUSTRIOUS is 25Ω at 108.0 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 Blessing 2 Dusk needs 2.0 dB more than the ILLUSTRIOUS to reach the same loudness — 0.25 mW against 0.16 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationBlessing 2 DuskILLUSTRIOUS
Impedance22 Ω25 Ω
Sensitivity106.0 dB108.0 dB/mW
Sensitivity (voltage)122.6 dB/V124.0 dB/V
Power for 100 dB0.25 mW0.16 mW
Voltage for 100 dB74 mV63 mV
Current for 100 dB3.4 mA2.5 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
2.75 Ω3.12 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
280280

One caution before reading the rows. For Moondrop Blessing 2 Dusk 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

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.

4 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the Blessing 2 Dusk but cross it with the ILLUSTRIOUS (FiiO K11 R2R, Schiit Valhalla 3, Lake People G111 Mk II, 1 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 Blessing 2 Dusk is more demanding than 23% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the ILLUSTRIOUS than 18%. 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 SPLBlessing 2 Dusk powerBlessing 2 Dusk voltageILLUSTRIOUS powerILLUSTRIOUS voltage
802.5 µW7 mV1.6 µW6 mV
857.9 µW13 mV5.0 µW11 mV
900.03 mW24 mV0.02 mW20 mV
950.08 mW42 mV0.05 mW35 mV
1000.25 mW74 mV0.16 mW63 mV
1050.79 mW0.13 V0.50 mW0.11 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, Blessing 2 DuskHeadroom, ILLUSTRIOUSOutput impedanceNoise
JadeAudio JA11$2019.1 dB21.7 dB0.5 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO KA11$2929.4 dB31.2 dB0.7 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO BTR13$5926.3 dB28.2 dB0.6 Ω1.0 µV

Of the 280 sources here, 280 reach 100 dB on both. That is the easy axis. 65 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 65 is the JadeAudio JA11, at $20. It leaves 19.1 dB of headroom on the Blessing 2 Dusk and 21.7 dB on the ILLUSTRIOUS, its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 2.75 Ω and 3.12 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 13 dB and 11 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.

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: Moondrop Blessing 2 Dusk and Moondrop ILLUSTRIOUS. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones Moondrop never published — what that maker publishes, counted.

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