Low Impedance vs. High Impedance? Huge Difference?

If you have a very powerful setup and put a low impedance can to it, something will blowup. Really, I've seen this before.

If you have a cheapy setup and add a high impedance can to it, either you won' hear anything or hear horrible sound.

If you don't have a amp, aim for 32ohms or lower

If you have a good headphone amp, go under 250ohms

If you have a powerful one, it's nice to hang around the 600ohm+ cans.

EDIT: there is no sonic differences

Heya,

Impedance really is a reflection of past hardware, and the concept of high impedance as 'audiophile' grade reflects people having old hardware (mind, still good) with different power outputs, noise floors, etc. These days it doesn't even matter as much because a lot of modern desktop amps are made to be able to deal with low impedance and high impedance, so you can just get a decent amp and plug basically anything into it.

Most headphones under 250ohm impedance will play fine out of a normal discreet soundcard on a PC (note, that does not include onboard sound necessarily). If you're at all worried and have a desktop, the Xonar DG is $30, that's a good enough amp for most 250ohm and below in general. If on a laptop or something, consider an inexpensive small amp like the FiiO E11 or go a bit more and get a simple E9 and you're set for virtually any headphone in the mid-tier and under range.

Very best,

If there are no sonic differences, why they don't just make headphones with appropiate impedance for most situations?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ponkine 

If there are no sonic differences, why they don't just make headphones with appropiate impedance for most situations?

 

 

Again,

Due to hardware. And most headphones these days, including high end stuff, is starting to be low impedance because of the digital revolution and the mass spreading of portable devices. Basically because of Apple. There's far more low impedance stuff than high impedance stuff. We just talk a lot of about particular headphones here with high impedances often.

Very best,

There are some advantages to a headphone with high impedance. A higher impedance allows for more turns of wire to be used in the voice coil of the driver. This can improve how a headphone sounds and is the reason why Beyerdynamic's higher impedance models sound slightly better than their low-impedance versions.

With this said, with today's technology, low impedance phones sound awesome and I don't think there is any real advantage in using a higher impedance headphone anymore. If you have a choice of impedance (Beyer) and have a nice amp, you should go for the higher impedance model but otherwise you shouldnt worry about this. 

Generally speaking, low impedance cans are current driven, while high impedance cans are voltage driven.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BotByte 

If you have a very powerful setup and put a low impedance can to it, something will blowup. Really, I've seen this before.

 

If you have a cheapy setup and add a high impedance can to it, either you won' hear anything or hear horrible sound.

 

If you don't have a amp, aim for 32ohms or lower

If you have a good headphone amp, go under 250ohms

If you have a powerful one, it's nice to hang around the 600ohm+ cans.

 

EDIT: there is no sonic differences

Well I know whose advice I'm never taking anymore...sheesh do you understand anything about circuits?
 

EDIT: I see I was beaten by Uncle Erik.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jupitreas 

There are some advantages to a headphone with high impedance. A higher impedance allows for more turns of wire to be used in the voice coil of the driver. This can improve how a headphone sounds and is the reason why Beyerdynamic's higher impedance models sound slightly better than their low-impedance versions.

 

With this said, with today's technology, low impedance phones sound awesome and I don't think there is any real advantage in using a higher impedance headphone anymore. If you have a choice of impedance (Beyer) and have a nice amp, you should go for the higher impedance model but otherwise you shouldnt worry about this. 

thats what i thought, it seems to add better control making for less noise and better sound quality (slight improvement its not super super big over low impedance headphones)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik 



You have no idea what you're talking about.

I wonder if you just made this up.

Low impedance headphones will not "blow up" if connected to a "powerful" setup.

Impedance is important related to the output impedance of the amp.

Low impedance does not mean something is easy to drive.

Google the Apogee Scintilla speaker. It has a 1.2 Ohm impedance. So if low impedance means easy to drive, then how come the Scintilla has a terrible reputation for overheating and literally melting lesser amps?

Impedance has to be considered along with an amp's output power, an amp's output impedance, and the headphone's sensitivity. You take the output power, consider how the output impedance and headphone impedance interact (there is a formula for this) and then you get the amount of power that comes through. Use that resulting power figure with the headphone sensitivity and you can calculate how loud the headphone will get.

If you only have the headphone impedance, you cannot call it a "tough" or "easy" load. That's like saying that x + y + z = n. If x is 3, find z. You can't. There isn't enough information.

When it comes to headphones, you generally want an output impedance lower than the headphone impedance. This is called the "Damping Factor"; look it up if you don't know what it is. Generally speaking, only solid state and output transformer-coupled tube amps have a low output impedance. OTLs have a high output impedance. Do not listen to OTL manufacturers when they say it will drive "anything," that's not true. They will make sound with anything, but an output impedance higher than the headphone impedance loses control of the bass. The only commercial OTL that does low impedance is the Zana Deux, and that's mostly because of its 6C33C tubes. If you don't see 6C33C tubes in an OTL, it probably has a high output impedance.

Did I ever mention I'm not good with amps?

I'm not. I understand that my T50RP are 56ohms and pull on a amp pretty hard.

Actually, that taught me a lot. I thank you.

But for someone starting out, it's easier to tell them that there are cans that need a amp and those that don't. We see about two dozen people asking for amps for Grado and others that don't need a amp. It's simpler to tell them either go for a can that needs a amp because of a the Ohms which is a easy (but confusing and unreliable) dictation or go for a can that has low Ohms. But then there are headphones like the T50RP, Dj100 and several others that run extremely low power and need amps regardless.

I admit, I do dramatize my writing a bit, it's in my nature. But I have seen sparks fly from a receiver before. My guitar teacher is an idiot.