S12

Tonal Profile

A 14.8 mm planar diaphragm in an in-ear shell. Planars have no impedance peak at resonance: the 16 Ω is essentially flat across the band, so output impedance in the source costs level and nothing else.

Amplification Warning

102 dB/mW at 16 Ω is about 120 dB/V — the least efficient thing in this batch that still counts as easy to drive. Planars also draw current where dynamics do not: 16 Ω at full tilt is where weak phone outputs start to clip rather than run out of voltage.