[revolink24]

To put it simply, ohms is not a measure of power, it is a measure of resistance. They will have a 120 Ohm resistance to electrical current but their high sensitivity will make up for that. Sorry I'm a bit late to this party, but it seems it had to be said.

 

[Spyro]

Reading through this I see that the OP's question was never really answered.

I know we can't get into the engineer's head but assuming the sensitivity is adequate for use with portables, is there any rhyme or reason for SQ purposes whether the Ohms are 16 or 32 or 40 or 120?

 

[goodvibes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spyro /img/forum/go_quote.gif Reading through this I see that the OP's question was never really answered. I know we can't get into the engineer's head but assuming the sensitivity is adequate for use with portables, is there any rhyme or reason for SQ purposes whether the Ohms are 16 or 32 or 40 or 120?

Everything being equal, it takes more current to drive a lower impedance. 16 ohms is closer to a short than 100 ohms. Things are rarely equal however and it's best to just look at the efficiency ratings. That a 600 ohm AKG can be less efficient than something else isn't just about it's impedance but it is a factor. Though more current is used to drive a lower impedance it may play louder at the same volume setting. Down side is that it will draw more juice at that same volume setting and not be able to reach as high a setting on the V control overall before clipping. In other words the efficiency to drive it isn't increased even though the measured efficiency is higher.

As long as you can reach your max listening level with the phone that you chose, you should ignore everything else unless your player just isn't as stable into lower impedances which is why resistance adapters sometimes work along with lowering the damping factor. Best of all worlds is actually a higher impedance AND high effeciency. Not too common for the reasons stated and also the added mass of the longer windings associated with higher impedace.

 

[LingLing1337]

AFAI can tell, they didn't make it high-impedance for SQ, because they sound like garbage.

 

[logwed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by revolink24 /img/forum/go_quote.gif To put it simply, ohms is not a measure of power, it is a measure of resistance. They will have a 120 Ohm resistance to electrical current but their high sensitivity will make up for that. Sorry I'm a bit late to this party, but it seems it had to be said.

QFT, but I loved Mark's contributions to this thread.

 

[fzman]

perhaps the answer is that impedance is probably not a primary design goal for a driver (within reason) - sonics, efficiency durability, and size are. you design to your priorities and keep an eye on impedance, but probably do not design with impedance as a specific target -- life is trade-offs!

 

[mark2410]

Quote:

Originally Posted by logwed /img/forum/go_quote.gif QFT, but I loved Mark's contributions to this thread.

lol, why thank you kind sir

 

[daouda]

Im a noob but i still have some remnants of basic physics notions from highschool, and all the complex answers that have been given so far to the OP are of no help to him, its obvious that he needs some basic explanations of some more basic notions before starting to answer his specific question. (and it's allright that he doesnt have them, not everybody is a physics geek)
Revolink, albeit late in the thread, is the first and only so far to give those explanations obviously needed by OP to clarify his understanting.
I will try go down to some even more basic,vulgarised explanation that might help clarify OP's mind :
Among other factors, the impedance (expressed in Ohms, a resistance unit) of headphones will determine how difficult they will be driven by MP3 players. The higher their impedance, the more resistance they will have to electrical input, and the more output power they will need to achieve similar volume levels to headphones with lesser impedance (most of the time, as, like other people have said in this thread, the efficiency of headphones is affected by more factors than only impedance).


Now i am also a noob with lacking physics knowledge and i'm wondering :
In what unit is expressed the "power" (electrical power usually is in Watts, right?) put out by digital audio players and amps through their headphone-out/speakers-out ? How to spot it in DAPs and headamps specs? It seems impedance of headphones is almost always specified, but not headamps and DAPs power output, or im missing something?

EDIT:
To the OP : Bottom line, in case you still didnt get it : "ohms of power", and "More ohms or Impedance is required to drive those headphones" are pure nonsense and express a profound lack of understanding of basic physics.
Ohm is a unit of resistance and impedance (which arent the same thing but i dont know the difference!). Impedance is a "passive" caracteristic of a headphone that will help (along with sensitivity) to determine its efficiency, this is why a headphone impedance is almost always specified. Higher impedance phones usually need more POWER (an "active" specification of DAPs and amps, expressed in Watts??) from DAPs/amps output to drive them better compared to lesser impedance (thus usually more efficient) ones.
Now it should be a little clearer to you.
And please dont think im being condescendant, i couldnt be since im obviously not much better than you in the notions of physics department.