[kevg73]

sorry for the probably stupid sounding question but what is characteristic spl? is higher or lower generally considered better? and how exactly does impedence effect sound quality?

 

[espire]

Those don't sound like noob questions to me, but I can't really say much about that...

I, too, would like to know these things, anyway.

 

[Tem]

me 3.

 

[nosleep]

Higher impedance takes less to be driven aka amp???? No idea. I'll wait for a real answer.

 

[mow_the_hawk]

All I know is that the higher the impedance, the harder they are to drive. I don't know the technical details. Apparently higher is better? correct me on that. But lower is better for portablility, (aka no amp)

 

[nosleep]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mow_the_hawk /img/forum/go_quote.gif All I know is that the higher the impedance, the harder they are to drive. I don't know the technical details. Apparently higher is better? correct me on that. But lower is better for portablility, (aka no amp)

Seems like 32 ohms is standard for most portable headphones and yet the highly regarded Porta Pros are at 64 ohms....

 

[espire]

So by impedance, they mean resistance. I guess impedance is a little less futile?

 

[GruntSpawn]

Impedance is the measure of AC resistance. This is why its unit is the ohm. As for higher impedance being better? This is just coincidence. Look at grado's for example, the gs1000 has 32 ohms of impedance.

So, when your looking at headphones don't see high impedance and say "Oh boy these must be amazing!!!" but "Oh I need an amp for these babies."

 

[ThomasJB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GruntSpawn /img/forum/go_quote.gif Impedance is the measure of AC resistance. This is why its unit is the ohm. As for higher impedance being better? This is just coincidence. Look at grado's for example, the gs1000 has 32 ohms of impedance. So, when your looking at headphones don't see high impedance and say "Oh boy these must be amazing!!!" but "Oh I need an amp for these babies."

But 600 ohm Beyers supposedly sound better because they actually have a different voice coil. On the other hand, you can increase the SQ of Ety ER-4P just by adding a 75 ohm resistor in series with the cable. So it would seem from that that increasing the impedance itself increases the sound quality, but it must not be true for any other headphones or people would be recabling Grados with high-impedance cables.

 

[kevg73]

okay so impedence really isnt that important... but what is characteristic spl?

 

[GruntSpawn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThomasJB /img/forum/go_quote.gif But 600 ohm Beyers supposedly sound better because they actually have a different voice coil. On the other hand, you can increase the SQ of Ety ER-4P just by adding a 75 ohm resistor in series with the cable. So it would seem from that that increasing the impedance itself increases the sound quality, but it must not be true for any other headphones or people would be recabling Grados with high-impedance cables.

Exactly. My point was mainly that high impedance doesn't automatically mean great performance.

As for characteristic spl I have no idea :/

 

[MH79]

SPL stands for sound pressure level - I'm not sure if that helps or not?

 

[P.F. Jo]

sound pressure level = volume.

lol.

 

[tjohnusa]

SPL gives an idea of how efficient the headphones or speaker are. How it is measured is sending a certain standard signal at a certain wattage and measure how loud the driver is. The higher the SPL the more efficient it is and therefor the louder it will sound at a lower wattage.....I think.

 

[kevg73]

okay so they both have to do with how easy the cans are to drive and really dont have a whole lot to do with sound quality?