[rxinside]

Can a low impedence amp run high impedence head-FI?

 

[Old Pa]

Can you tell us specifically what equipment you are talking about? Make and model?

 

[Sycraft]

As a general rule? Ya, usually you want your outputs to be lower impedance rather than higher impedance, just as most of the time you want your inputs to be high impedeance. That's not always true though. As Pa asked, what specificly are you talking about?

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Generally, yes. Most solid state amps, but not all, have an output impdeance of around an ohm or so. Tubes generally run a much higher output impedance, and some tubes can't even run less than something like the Sennheiser stuff at 300 ohms.

 

[rxinside]

I meant if I have a 250 ohm impedence pair of head-fi, will it run on a 32 ohm amp, like, let's say, a solid state or tube amp??? And if so...will it be more damageable than if it would run on a high impedence amp?

 

[Old Pa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rxinside I meant if I have a 250 ohm impedence pair of head-fi, will it run on a 32 ohm amp, like, let's say, a solid state or tube amp??? And if so...will it be more damageable than if it would run on a high impedence amp?

Is this a regular speaker amp with a headphone jack, a specialized headphone amp, or a speaker amp where you intend to drive headphones off the speaker terminals?

 

[JaZZ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rxinside I meant if I have a 250 ohm impedence pair of head-fi, will it run on a 32 ohm amp, like, let's say, a solid state or tube amp??? And if so...will it be more damageable than if it would run on a high impedence amp?

There is no «32-ohm amp» in the sense you seem to assume. Typical solid-state amps have output impedances between 0 and 1 ohm and principally drive all existing headphones (with very few exceptions) with impedances between 20 and 600 ohm. Tube amps have output impedances between 10 (?) and 200 ohm; many of them aren't recommended or recommendable with low-impedance headphones. Generally most headphones work best (sonically) with low output impedances. However, the risk of damaging the amp is very small, even in the least favorable case. Damaging your headphone is only possible with excessive volume in any case.

 

[KZEE]

While we're on the subject of impedances, what is it that manufacturers do to a a pair of headphones - or regular loudspeakers for that matter - that makes them high or low impedance? And why would one manufacturer design their product to be of a higher impedance (Sennhieser) and another manufacturer design their product to be of a lower impedance (Grado)?

 

[John Reeves]

Hi Kzee,

I've got an Oehlbach 120 ohm convertor plug, and the above posts have helped explain the situations were you'de use it - I think.

It's a bit like loudspeakers, different speakers have different impedances depending on the drive units. The number of turns of wire on the coils determines different impedances, and the number of turns, together with the power of the magnets determines the throw or movement and hence the sound. The drivers are then tuned by altering the above to give the desired sound in the casing and the speed of response etc.

I'm trying to explain here, so please anyone correct me if I haven't explained/got this correct.