Cadenza II
headphones
$50
Used market: $40*
Specifications
3 of 6 values have a recorded sourceExpert Audio Engineering Commentary
Tonal Profile
The second Cadenza swaps the beryllium-coated driver for a titanium-coated PET diaphragm and drops the impedance from 32 Ω to 18 Ω. Kiwi Ears also publishes rated and maximum power here — 5 mW and 10 mW — which is unusual honesty for the price and a genuinely low ceiling.
Amplification Warning
10 mW at 18 Ω is 0.42 V. A desktop amplifier that swings several volts will pass the manufacturer's own maximum long before the volume knob runs out.
What the datasheet actually says
Quoted verbatim from the manufacturer’s own page, with the date we checked it. We state what is printed, not what anyone intended by it.
«Sensitivity 106dB (±1dB)@1kHz»
The unit is missing. On the same manufacturer's Cadenza and Orchestra pages the identical table row reads «110dBSPL/mW» and «111dBSPL/mW», so milliwatts is the reading we record. It matters: at the stated 18 Ω the same figure read as dB/V would describe an earphone about 17 dB less efficient than it is, which is the difference between «any phone drives it» and «bring an amplifier».
checked 8/5/2026* Estimated with the depreciation fallback (~80% retained value). · checked on 8/5/2026