[haziz]

Any experience regarding specifically the 16 Ohm version of the Beyerdynamic DT770s? I am attracted by the impedance since these would be driven directly by a mobile phone or the headphone jack on a PC, and only rarely by a headphone amp.
There seems to be a lot of info regarding the 32 Ohm, 80 Ohm and 250 Ohm versions of these cans, but very little about the lowest impedance version.

I listen predominantly to classical and jazz. I do not game.

 

[Kammerat Rebekka]

The DT770 80 ohm works well out of phones and mp3 players. I’d opt for that over the lower impedance variants. Granted I’ve never actually heard the 16 ohm one but listening to the 32, 80 and 250 versions side by side made it quite apparent to me that the DT770 most definitely isn’t a headphone designed with low impedance in mind.

 

[haziz]

The DT770 80 ohm works well out of phones and mp3 players. I’d opt for that over the lower impedance variants. Granted I’ve never actually heard the 16 ohm one but listening to the 32, 80 and 250 versions side by side made it quite apparent to me that the DT770 most definitely isn’t a headphone designed with low impedance in mind.

Can you elaborate on why you feel that the "DT770 most definitely isn’t a headphone designed with low impedance in mind"?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Kammerat Rebekka]

Because it’s still a headphone with a fairly low sensitivity ie 96 dB/mW. If Beyerdynamic were serious in making an easy to drive DT770 then they should have focused on making the design more sensitive instead of cutting the damping factor in two or 4.
Most of the old DT headphones I’ve heard from Beyerdynamic all sound better the higher up in damping factor one goes..the 600 ohm variants being the best imho. This has been true for the DT770, DT880 as well as the DT990.

Edith:
As an aside - I think 16 ohm is waaay too low of a damping factor for a dynamic driver headphone meant for hooking up to various mobile sources like fx a phone.
The golden rule is: the output impedance of the amp should at the very least be 1/8 of the headphones’ damping factor...and well there are quite a few mobile devices that come with an output impedance over 3 ohm, which in essence means that you’re going to hear differences in the bass (distortion mostly and with a high enough output impedance, you’re actually going to experience a so-called impedance hump making the DT770 even more bassy).
For an easy to drive, relatively cheap headphone I’d probably look at something like the K371 instead.
Best of luck