Is there a difference between nominal impedance, input impedance and just impedance? | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org

noona1227 · Feb 22, 2012 at 4:53 PM

I've been looking at specs of headphones at some say nominal impedance (Sennheiser HD800, 650), some say input impedance (AKG Q701) and others say just 'impedance'. Is there a difference in the terms or do they mean the same thing?

I looked up impedance in wikipedia and it shows links to difference types of impedance. Electrical, Wave, Acoustic, Mechanical. Which one has to do with headphone impedance?

Thanks,
Noona1227

liamstrain · Feb 22, 2012 at 5:00 PM

electrical impedance is what they are talking about.

And in this usage, nominal, input and just impedance, are all referring to the same thing - that is the electrical impedance rating of the driver in the headphone.

mikeaj · Feb 23, 2012 at 11:22 AM

Some are sometimes a little careful about saying "nominal impedance" because some headphones have impedance that varies quite a bit over the audible frequency range. Electrical impedance is a function of frequency. When they say "nominal" they're probably talking about the impedance at 1 kHz, which is an arbitrary but accepted standard.

xnor · Feb 23, 2012 at 1:43 PM

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominal_impedance#Loudspeakers.

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