This is my understanding. Audiophiles love to shroud things in mystery. And it’s been decades since I did reactive/imaginary electronics at university.
Please someone correct me:
80 ohm is fine from a phone or a laptop headphone jack. Basically everyday consumer not-special devices.
80ohm can covert the small power output to a higher magnetic field, so the voice coil can move more (or with more force) which moves more air, which is louder.
But to make 80 ohm coils, it requires a thicker wire in the voice coil (thicker wire lowers resistance. I know its impedance, but I feel like wire resistance is probably higher than the imaginary component). Which makes it heavier. Which makes it slower to change direction (heavier has higher intertia, so larger momentum once it’s moving in one direction). So you get less definition (high frequency/fidelity/detail/whatever, basically).
P = I²R : as resistance increases for a given power amp, the current has to drop. And magnetic field (which drives the voice coils) is related to the current.
So for a given power amp, low impedance phones will generate more magnetic field.
So a low impedance headphone can do more with less, at the expense of fidelity/high-frequency/detail.
A higher impedance coil is made with thinner wire, so is lighter which reduces its intertia.
But it requires more power to produce the same amount of magnetic field (which relates to the amount of air moved, which relates to loudness).
I feel like the whole thing is a rule-of-thumb thing.
Generally low impedance has heavier components which move slower, so can’t do the higher frequency things.
But they can move more air for a given power, just slower.
High impedance things are lighter and can move quickly. But they require more power to produce the same amount of magnetic field.
So they can move air faster for a give power, just less of it.
So a high power headphone amp will be able to “drive” 250 ohm headphones.
I have a FiiO k7 with my DT770 250 ohms.
It’s a dac, nice big volume knob, usb, DAC (spdif copper and glass), unbalanced inputs and unbalanced outs.
My hatred (and I wish I knew this before buying) is that inserting headphones does not mute the analogue outputs. So plugging I. headphones doesn’t mute my speakers.
Other than that, I have no issues with it. Sure, I’d love a Benchmark. But my budget says FiiO is good enough, and my 770s sound lovely
250ohm isn’t louder.
This is my understanding. Audiophiles love to shroud things in mystery. And it’s been decades since I did reactive/imaginary electronics at university.
Please someone correct me:
80 ohm is fine from a phone or a laptop headphone jack. Basically everyday consumer not-special devices.
80ohm can covert the small power output to a higher magnetic field, so the voice coil can move more (or with more force) which moves more air, which is louder.
But to make 80 ohm coils, it requires a thicker wire in the voice coil (thicker wire lowers resistance. I know its impedance, but I feel like wire resistance is probably higher than the imaginary component). Which makes it heavier. Which makes it slower to change direction (heavier has higher intertia, so larger momentum once it’s moving in one direction). So you get less definition (high frequency/fidelity/detail/whatever, basically).
P = I²R: as resistance increases for a given power amp, the current has to drop. And magnetic field (which drives the voice coils) is related to the current.So for a given power amp, low impedance phones will generate more magnetic field.
So a low impedance headphone can do more with less, at the expense of fidelity/high-frequency/detail.
A higher impedance coil is made with thinner wire, so is lighter which reduces its intertia.
But it requires more power to produce the same amount of magnetic field (which relates to the amount of air moved, which relates to loudness).
I feel like the whole thing is a rule-of-thumb thing.
Generally low impedance has heavier components which move slower, so can’t do the higher frequency things.
But they can move more air for a given power, just slower.
High impedance things are lighter and can move quickly. But they require more power to produce the same amount of magnetic field.
So they can move air faster for a give power, just less of it.
So a high power headphone amp will be able to “drive” 250 ohm headphones.
I have a FiiO k7 with my DT770 250 ohms.
It’s a dac, nice big volume knob, usb, DAC (spdif copper and glass), unbalanced inputs and unbalanced outs.
My hatred (and I wish I knew this before buying) is that inserting headphones does not mute the analogue outputs. So plugging I. headphones doesn’t mute my speakers.
Other than that, I have no issues with it. Sure, I’d love a Benchmark. But my budget says FiiO is good enough, and my 770s sound lovely