[krismusic]

if a headphone is available in two impedance so, what is gained by going for a higher impedance?

 

[NA Blur]

The efficiency ( i.e. sensitivity ) is very important as well.  The higher the impedance the harder a portable will be able to drive the headphone.  Higher impedance typically means less current needed to achieve a specific power.  It is almost always better to error on lower impedance and higher sensitivity.
 
I would stay below 80 Ohms for Impedance and above 100 dB/mW for sensitivity.

 

[adisib]

Higher impedance requires a stronger amp, but it benefits from having a lower noise floor. If you have a noisy signal and can afford / have a good amp then go for high impedance, else go for low.

 

[krismusic]

Thanks for the replies. Is noise floor pretty much the only benefit?
I'm asking for a friend. He is looking at Beyerdynamic. They produce the same headphone in 30 Ohm and 600.

 

[davidsh]

For the beyers I think that there is more to the different models than impedance

 

[superjawes]

The primary advantage of different impedances has nothing to do with impedances. It all comes down to driver design, and impedance is really just a consequence of certain design decisions.

From there, you might also gain an advantage of being able to use amps with higher output impedance. That and the noise floor bit.

I also believe that there are other differences in the Beyer models. They probably don't sound as different as switching to a different manufacturer, but as I said before, impedance is really a consequence of the design, and different designs sound different.

 

[sonitus mirus]

For the beyers I think that there is more to the different models than impedance

 
Yes, the driver design is different, resulting in different impedance values between versions.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/513393/guide-sonic-differences-between-dt770-dt990-models-more

 

[elan-vital]

  Higher impedance requires a stronger amp, but it benefits from having a lower noise floor. If you have a noisy signal and can afford / have a good amp then go for high impedance, else go for low.

Besides lower noise floor, if that's indeed the case, i wonder if perhaps higher impedance is, in any way, responsible for more impactful faster/controlled response (particularly in lower frequencies)?  

 

[krismusic]

Yes, the driver design is different, resulting in different impedance values between versions.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/513393/guide-sonic-differences-between-dt770-dt990-models-more

Very useful link. I'll pass it on. Thank you.

 

[davidsh]

 

  Higher impedance requires a stronger amp, but it benefits from having a lower noise floor. If you have a noisy signal and can afford / have a good amp then go for high impedance, else go for low.

Besides lower noise floor, if that's indeed the case, i wonder if perhaps higher impedance is, in any way, responsible for more impactful faster/controlled response (particularly in lower frequencies)?  

I don't think so..

 

[castleofargh]

 

 

  Higher impedance requires a stronger amp, but it benefits from having a lower noise floor. If you have a noisy signal and can afford / have a good amp then go for high impedance, else go for low.

Besides lower noise floor, if that's indeed the case, i wonder if perhaps higher impedance is, in any way, responsible for more impactful faster/controlled response (particularly in lower frequencies)?  

I don't think so..

well I would be tempted to say no too as a general answer, but it does happen for low impedance headphones to have some bass roll off depending on the output design(some stuff about capacitors? or something, I experience it, but don't really understand the "mechanism" behind it #4ever-noob).
but I suspect even for that, a great damping factor between the amp and the headphone would solve the problem. so back to just using stuff for their proper intent and all is good.

 

[elan-vital]

Seems like it does make some difference for Beyers, otherwise opinions seem to be divided. 
There is the thought that the reason for higher impedance headphones is simply the ability of parallel hookup of several headphones into a single source (i.e. in studio applications), and there should be no difference in sound based merely on headphones impedance.
But there is this lingering thought that higher impedance lends itself somehow to designing less noisy and smoother sounding headphones (i'm intrigued by this idea) 
Still though, most seem to agree that properly driven lower impedance headphones can have just as fast and controlled response, as a well driven higher impedance headphones would - i guess this is derived from the  idea that each headphone design is different and it's the combination of factors and engineering choices which determine the sound quality, and not just one spec.
Just a speculative thought here - higher impedance is often associated with quality, which might be because most headphones are low impedance and thus there is just a plethora of bad low impedance headphones "designed" to be used with substandard sources; on the other hand if manufacturer goes into trouble of constructing headphones which are to be driven by quality amplifier, they might as well build something decent, which doesn't necessarily mean that there is no great quality low impedance headphones.  Anyhow, seems like this topic can be somewhat of a debate.

 

[dprimary]

In the past it was useful to have 600 ohm headphones you could plug them into patch bay and listen to a line level signal safely. Even studios don't have as much patch bays in them as they did even 10 years ago. Plug-ins have taken over.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  Higher impedance requires a stronger amp, but it benefits from having a lower noise floor. If you have a noisy signal and can afford / have a good amp then go for high impedance, else go for low.

 

Not necessarily - instead of getting a monster amp that does 6watts at 32ohms and 300mW at at 300ohms, you can get an amplifier like an OTL tube design that does 600mW at 300ohms and 50mW at 32ohms.

 

The AudioGD Master 1 and Master 2 amps area better option though - they not only deliver a lot of power, but the "gain" switch doesn't actually make the gain louder, but flips the power output profile. You basically can put in the same amount of power into a 32ohm orthodynamic or a 300ohm dynamic headphone, plus the ability to drive speakers. Of course, the question is whether you actually need all that power, but then again if you have speakers those amps are a sensible option regardless of how much your headphone/s actually need.

 

[elan-vital]

  In the past it was useful to have 600 ohm headphones you could plug them into patch bay and listen to a line level signal safely. Even studios don't have as much patch bays in them as they did even 10 years ago. Plug-ins have taken over.

Are you suggesting that there are no other benefits of higher impedance headphones beyond, now antiquated usage in the studio? Can we say with that in some way impedance is responsible for some aspect of the quality of sound. Perhaps better way to phrase the question would be to ask if someone would take impedance (particularly higher impedance) into consideration when choosing headphones.