[dans98]

Hello! I have a great sounding pair of Klipsch earphones that have a strange quirk, namely that they don't seem to get recognized by any device as being high impedance, not my old LG V20 phone nor my PC. Thus they end up not being amped up properly and sound terrible which is a shame. I found a workaround with my LG but ever since it got nicked I haven't had any music player to use them with. I have an old Ipod Classic that I know is capable of driving them (up to 30 ohms and the earphones are 50, good enough) but it needs a new audio jack, so I'm unable to test it out. Thing is I can't currently afford to get it fixed for no reason if it turns out not to work, so an answer either way would be much appreciated
Sorry if my question is kinda stupid and obvious, but I'm not an expert on how amps work and I haven't been able to find an answer anywhere. Thanks in advance!

 

[Music Alchemist]

Any amp's output is going to vary depending on the input impedance of the headphones. When in doubt, check the specs.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Hello! I have a great sounding pair of Klipsch earphones that have a strange quirk, namely that they don't seem to get recognized by any device as being high impedance, not my old LG V20 phone nor my PC. Thus they end up not being amped up properly and sound terrible which is a shame. I found a workaround with my LG but ever since it got nicked I haven't had any music player to use them with. I have an old Ipod Classic that I know is capable of driving them (up to 30 ohms and the earphones are 50, good enough) but it needs a new audio jack, so I'm unable to test it out. Thing is I can't currently afford to get it fixed for no reason if it turns out not to work, so an answer either way would be much appreciated
Sorry if my question is kinda stupid and obvious, but I'm not an expert on how amps work and I haven't been able to find an answer anywhere.

No one would really qualify 50ohms as high impedance and not odd if LG engineers won't program the V20 to recognize it as such. The real problem is that sensitivity matters more than impedance until voltage output really becomes a problem.

In any case, any amp circuit will produce different max output depending on the impedance, but 50ohms isn't going to drastically affect the power output rated at 32ohms.

 

[dans98]

No one would really qualify 50ohms as high impedance and not odd if LG engineers won't program the V20 to recognize it as such. The real problem is that sensitivity matters more than impedance until voltage output really becomes a problem.

In any case, any amp circuit will produce different max output depending on the impedance, but 50ohms isn't going to drastically affect the power output rated at 32ohms.

True, 50 ohms isn't really high impedance. But in my experience with those earphones and a pair of sennheiser hd598's which are also 50 ohms, they sound pretty bad when plugged into the average phone and great when used with something with a proper amp, like my broken ipod I tried using them with my htc m8 and ipad and they sound worse than the old apple earphones, definitely not how it should be with almost $300 earphones. They lose all detail throughout the entire range and sound really muddy. Anyway, thanks a lot!

 

[dans98]

Any amp's output is going to vary depending on the input impedance of the headphones. When in doubt, check the specs.

Alright, thanks! Spec wise it should be fine but this seems to be a problem specifically with these earphones, as I also have a pair of 50 ohms sennheiser cans and they're amped up just fine by my PC. They would also trigger high impedance mode on my LG V20.

 

[Music Alchemist]

Alright, thanks! Spec wise it should be fine but this seems to be a problem specifically with these earphones, as I also have a pair of 50 ohms sennheiser cans and they're amped up just fine by my PC. They would also trigger high impedance mode on my LG V20.

If you're worried about whether the iPod classic can drive them, I'd say you're fine. I owned one and it could get pretty loud with any headphones that didn't have low sensitivity.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

True, 50 ohms isn't really high impedance. But in my experience with those earphones and a pair of sennheiser hd598's which are also 50 ohms, they sound pretty bad when plugged into the average phone and great when used with something with a proper amp, like my broken ipod I tried using them with my htc m8 and ipad and they sound worse than the old apple earphones, definitely not how it should be with almost $300 earphones. They lose all detail throughout the entire range and sound really muddy.

Hence my point about sensitivity being more important than impedance and why LG's engineers are wrong about the design.

 

[dans98]

Hence my point about sensitivity being more important than impedance and why LG's engineers are wrong about the design.

Point taken, thanks!