Headphone Impedance Demystified: Do I Need a Headphone Amp?

(Last Updated On: May 6, 2019)

The importance of matching headphones with audio sources in the pursuit of high fidelity
audio.

This article was crafted with love from Trav and Timothy (Editor). Timothy goes by
/u/ohaivoltage in Reddit and he happens to own an awesome website, wtfamps.com.

Hafler
HA75 tube DAC+Amplifier with adjustable headphone load impedance and Beyerdynamic
T1 headphones from theaudiophileman.

Impedance is one of the basic specifications included with almost every quality pair of
headphones and most audio sources (DAP, phone or amplifier). Everyone has seen the
measurement, but I’m betting that few really understand the importance when making
purchasing decisions.

One of the first questions you will see in headphone forums is if a dedicated amplifier will be
needed for a new headphone purchase. Lots of opinions fly around, often contradictory, so
let’s take a look at the science behind the answer.

A common
question on Reddit’s r/headphones.
For the sake of simplicity, this article will be limiting itself to examples using headphones
rather than IEMs or ear buds, but the basic concepts remain the same.

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The Basic Concept of Impedance

When describing impedance, there are several terms that you should aware of. When viewed
as a simple electronic circuit, the impedance of the audio source may be written as output (or
source) impedance, while the impedance of the headphones may be considered load
impedance.

Headphone impedance is typically rated between 8-600 ohms, with a standard around 32
ohms becoming increasingly common. Audio source impedance is typically very low, often
less than 4 ohms and approaching 0 ohms in many cases, but it may be as high as 120 ohms or
more for specialized tube amplifiers, specifically output transformer-less (OTL) types.

Headphones are different than home stereos, as speakers are commonly in a very narrow
range between 4-8 ohms. Car stereos typically reside in the range of 2-16 ohms.

Impedance Matching
Impedance matching is the interaction between the source impedance (the device the
headphone is attached to) and the headphone impedance. To ensure the highest audio quality,
the source and the headphones must pair well. As you may have guessed from the impedance
range examples above, a match doesn’t mean ‘both the same’ but rather that they are
‘complementary.’

“The single most important technological factor to consider when looking for a headphone
amplifier that works well with your ear phones is impedance matching.” – RHA Audio

We will look at the rules around finding that perfect match in some detail below. For now, it
is enough to understand that audio source and headphone impedances should not be equal and
that headphones with different impedances will require different sources. Equal source and
load impedance maximize the power we can transfer between the amp and headphones, but
this typically reduces frequency bandwidth so it’s not what we want in high fidelity.

In general, low impedance headphones (which we will hereby define as below 50 ohms) are
designed to work properly with portable devices, as they can efficiently reproduce adequate
sound quality and volume from a low voltage device.

Conversely, high impedance headphones (50 ohms and greater) usually require robust
amplification to perform their best.

Why are some Headphones High or Low Impedance?

Headphones with impedance greater than 100 ohms are typically older or professional studio
specific designs. Pre-1990s receivers and pro audio equipment often used resistors to
attenuate the speaker output power (wattage) to create a simple and inexpensive headphone
circuit.

These headphone circuits consequently worked best with high impedance headphones. In
some cases, high impedance headphones were designed to chain multiple pairs in parallel for
pro studio applications. Without getting too heavily into the math behind it, the high

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impedance load preserves the source output voltage to be able to drive multiple pairs of
headphones.

600 ohm
designation on Beyerdynamic DT880 plug.

This was so prevalent that even as recently as 1996, the standard recommended source output
resistance was 120 ohms, and went so far as to claim that source impedance had very little
effect on the performance.

Stereophile did not mince words with their opinion of that standard and claim.

“Whoever wrote that must live in a fantasy world. Many of the headphones currently
available… typically display a quite wide variation of impedance with frequency.”

Most modern headphones are designed to appeal to as wide a market as possible, and that
means they must play well on mobile devices. The sale of hundreds of millions of battery
powered music players, including the ubiquitous iPod and more recently smartphones, has
made lower impedance (around 32 ohms) headphones the norm.

Headphone Models with Multiple Impedances

Customarily, a particular headphone model is only available in a single impedance.

Beyerdynamic is one of the few (if perhaps the only) major company that produces multiple

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versions of the same model, differing only by impedance: 32, 250, or 600 ohm versions of the
DT880 and DT990 headphones, and 32, 80 or 250 ohm versions of the DT770.

Beyerdynamic DT880 headphone comparisons from InnerFidelity

As you can see the versions do not perform equally.

“The above graphs show the square wave and impulse responses of the three DT880
impedance headphones. Here you can see that the 32 ohm DT 880 rings markedly more than
the other two headphones.” – InnerFidelity

Steve Guttenburg of CNet explained:

“The impedance of a headphone is largely determined by the driver’s voice coil, and for
Beyerdynamic’s high-impedance models the voice coil’s wire is super-thin, just 0.018mm,
half the thickness of a human hair. Beyerdynamic’s Senior Product Manager Gunter
Weidemann explained…
The thinner wires have more windings (layers of wire) on the voice-coil than the lower-
impedance Beyerdynamic headphones, which have thicker and heavier, easier-to-manufacture
voice coils. The lower moving mass of the 250- and 600-ohm headphones’ voice coils is
lighter than the 32-ohm models, and the lower mass is part of the reason high-impedance
headphones sound better. The smaller diameter of the 600-ohm voice coil wires allows the
wires to fit tighter, so there’s less air between the windings, and that makes the
electromagnetic field of the voice coil stronger. All of that reduces distortion for the high-
impedance versions compared with the low-impedance headphones.”

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Beyerdynamic DT770 in 32, 80 and 250 ohm versions.

If properly matched to an appropriate amplifier, it is possible to achieve an enhanced quality

of sound with high impedance headphones, at least with specific designs like the
Beyerdynamic models above. Please don’t take this to mean that excellent sounding low
impedance headphones do not exist. This is just one company’s approach.

Headphone Sensitivity
Sensitivity (or efficiency) is a measurement of headphone volume at a specific power rating.

Headphone sensitivity is often measured at a specific frequency (1 kHz) at 1 mW of power.

Sensitivity ratings are typically in the range of 90-105 dB (with outliers considered extremely
sensitive or insensitive).

It would appear, with comfortable listening volume levels of 60-80 dB, a full 1 mW of power
should seldom be required to achieve more than adequate loudness. But sensitivity ratings do
not tell the whole story. We also need to take into account music dynamics and our amp’s
total harmonic distortion (THD).

For highly dynamic classical music, the recommended dynamic range (the largest to the
smallest intensity of sound that can be reproduced) is usually 20 db. An increase of 20 db
requires that one hundred times the power be delivered to the headphones.

With that much dynamic range, a 1 mW nominal sensitivity rating can quickly become a 100
mW power requirement for the amp. Amplifiers will also generally produce more distortion
as power is increased (although this isn’t universal). In that case, a requirement for 100 mW

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at low distortion may lead to an amplifier actually rated at 1 W+ (amplifier power specs are
typically given at 1% THD).

How Sensitivity and Impedance impact Volume

Sensitivity and impedance are related but not causally linked. Both must be considered when
pairing headphones and sources.

It is tempting to describe impedance as simply being resistance and use Ohm’s Law (Voltage
= Current * Resistance) to illustrate, but Ohm’s Law is really only applicable to DC (direct
current). If impedance was the same as resistance, comparing identical headphones that differ
only in impedance would result in the higher impedance headphone always being quieter than
the lower impedance one (given the same source voltage). However, this isn’t always so
simple.

It’s easy to understand that sensitivity and volume are directly related: all else being equal,
more sensitive headphones will be louder.

SONIFEX CM-HPX1 Headphone Volume Control from Canford.

“Impedance… is more complex and measured with an AC current… Because music is an
alternating signal, not DC, impedance is how headphones are rated. Impedance is made up of
resistance, capacitance and inductance. Few headphones “look” like perfect resistors—most
have significant inductance and at least small amounts of capacitance. They’re what’s known
as a reactive load and the math is considerably more complex than just the most basic form of
Ohm’s Law.” – NwAvGuy (an anonymous engineer who created excellent and controversial
DIY audio designs such as the O2 headphone amplifier).

So understanding impedance isn’t as simple as considering load resistance. The source output
impedance is an important factor as well. Loading of the transistors (or tubes) and bias
(current) is also related. Amplifiers will tend to deliver more voltage into higher impedance
loads because the output impedance is not zero.

With a high output impedance source, high impedance loads can provide more volume. An
amplifier may be incapable of producing much power into a low impedance load if it is

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current limited, while it would be happy making plenty of power into a high impedance load.
Different amplifier designs will all have unique specifications and abilities.

No wonder it is difficult to imagine what the results will be when we consider pairing
headphones with a source. We can make educated guesses based on the specifications, but
until you try it, you can never really be sure.

It is enough to know that source impedance, headphone sensitivity and headphone impedance
are all factors that play into the resulting audio volume and performance.

Comparing Headphone Sensitivity and Impedance

To further complicate things, there is little consistency in headphone design with regards to
impedance and sensitivity (even within a single manufacturer). There are low impedance
headphones that are very inefficient and vice versa. Models with low sensitivity and low
impedance. Other that are low sensitivity, but high impedance. High sensitivity, low
impedance. Etc.

From the following chart listing a variety of headphone models with a range of impedances, it
is easy to see many different sensitivities. It’s pretty obvious that these headphones have
differing source requirements.

Headphone Model Impedance (Ohm) at 1 Khz Sensitivity (dB)

Grado SR80 32 98
Meze 99 Classics 32 103
Hifiman HE-6 50 83.5
Fostex TR50 MkIII 50 92
Shure SRH 1840 65 96
Audeze LCD 3 110 102
AKG K1000 120 74
Sennheiser HD650 300 103
AKG K240 600 94
Beyerdynamic T1 (gen 2) 600 102

Frequency and Impedance

Obviously, a headphone driver is capable of reproducing a wide range of frequencies. A
perfect driver would remain consistent across the full audible frequency range. Guess what?
The typical headphone driver is far from perfect.

Resonant Frequency in Dynamic Driver Headphones

The voice coil in dynamic headphones is designed to properly control the driver and ensure
good behavior at its resonant frequency. Resonant frequency is the frequency by which a
material vibrates most easily – think opera singers shattering crystal with a sustained note.

Driver impedance is NOT linear with frequency for dynamic headphones.

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Remember, most manufacturers state impedance at 1Khz in the headphone’s specifications.
This impedance is likely significantly lower than at the actual resonant frequency for that
driver. A frequency impedance graph for the driver illustrates a much more accurate picture.
This resistance can multiply many times at the resonant frequency.

Impedance and Frequency Graph of the Sennheiser HD650 from Innerfidelity

Dynamic driver headphones do not have a perfectly flat impedance response across all audible
frequencies. However, some designs are flatter than others.

“A very common complaint will be bloated bass from the variations in impedance on a low
impedance headphone, as a 32-ohm headphone may be 100 ohms at resonance….” –
Bottlehead Crack FAQ

Planar Magnetic Headphones

Planar magnetic (also called isodynamic, magneplanar, or orthodynamic) drivers, basically an

amalgam of electrostatic and dynamic drivers, act differently than typical dynamic drivers.
They use an S-shaped pattern for the voice coil (unlike traditional circular windings) which
tends to yield a low impedance.

However, much like dynamic drivers, not all planar magnetic headphones are the same. Some
are easy to drive with low impedance and high sensitivity like the HiFiMan HE 400s (22
ohms – 98 dB). Conversely from the same company, the HifiMan HE-6 is notoriously
inefficient and difficult to drive (50 ohms – 83.5 dB).

The largest departure from traditional dynamic drivers is in the impedance response. Planar
magnetic drivers do not have peaks and valleys, and are very flat across all frequencies.
Planar magnetic and dynamic headphones of similar ratings will often have quite different
amplification requirements.

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“Amplifier Friendly: The circuits found in planar magnetic diaphragms present an almost
purely resistive load to amplifiers, making it easy to drive. The impedance over the entire
frequency range is completely flat vs. dynamic speakers which could have variances in
impedance values over the frequency range.” – Audeze

Voltage Is Important
The amplifier must be able to deliver sufficient voltage to drive the impedance spikes at the
frequencies with the highest impedance. If the amplifier doesn’t have the power to reproduce
the spike frequency, undesirable behaviors such as distortion or frequency roll-offs are
introduced.

“…the voltage delivered to the headphones will also change with frequency. The greater the
output impedance, the greater the frequency response deviations. Different headphones will
interact in different, and typically unpredictable, ways with the source. Sometimes these
variations can be large and plainly audible.” – NwAvGuy

For instance, many Sennheiser headphones have an exaggerated frequency spike around
100Hz. The Sennheiser HD6xx line can require high voltage (3-6V) at the spike, making it a
poor pairing for many lower powered mobile devices, but an ideal match for the Bottlehead
Crack OTL tube amplifier characteristics (120 ohm output impedance and high voltage).

In general: High impedance headphones require higher voltage sources. Low impedance
headphones require higher current sources.

“The greater the output impedance the greater the voltage drop with lower impedance loads.
This drop can be large to enough to prevent driving low impedance headphones to sufficiently
loud levels. A real world example is the Behringer UCA202 with a 50 ohm output impedance.
It struggles with some 16 – 32 ohm headphones.” – NwAvGuy

In general: High impedance sources provide high voltage but low current.

The load impedance of a pair of headphones also plays an important, and closely related, role
in an amplifier’s distortion performance. The operating voltage and current (or bias) chosen
for transistors or tubes in amplifiers is optimized by the designer for low impedance loads,
high impedance loads, or a compromise of the two.

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 The Audio Technica
AT-HA5050H Headphone Amplifier with 120, 82, 33 and 0.1 output Impedance sockets from
Audio Technica.

Connecting a low impedance load when the amplifier is optimized for high impedance not
only reduces power, it also increases distortion. Some amplifiers have multiple outputs or
switches that allow them to adapt to multiple impedance loads and remain optimally biased.

Equal impedance between source and headphones is good for portable power requirements,
but not necessarily for sound quality.

Match for Best Performance

“Although it doesn’t always appear in the specifications of headphone amps, output resistance
has a nontrivial effect on frequency response, and hence on tonal balance.” – Stereophile

While it is extremely unlikely that anything catastrophic or destructive will occur with
headphone and source impedance mismatches, sound quality can suffer.

“It is manifestly unacceptable that a customer should select a pair of headphones by careful
listening at a retailer, only to experience a quite different tonal balance at home due to a
different source impedance… to ensure consistent results, headphones and headphone
amplifiers need to be considered as a package.” – Stereophile

Call it matching, pairing, synergy or just a case of plain old BFF, the source and the
headphones must complement each other. As we touched on above, volume and sound quality
can be greatly affected by impedance, requiring much more amplifier voltage to properly
drive high impedance headphones, something that isn’t easy or possible to achieve with most
portable devices.

High Source Impedance and Low Headphone Impedance Problems

There are real issues with the combination of high source output impedance and low
headphone impedance. While often only found in the extremes of OTL tube amplification,
this scenario creates higher harmonic distortion and noise, a low damping factor, and bass
roll-off.

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For every rule and scientific explanation you can read, it is easy to find contrary subjective
user experiences that claim great success and impeccable audio performance against all odds.
YMMV and read everything with a grain of salt.

Distortion

Typical solid-state headphone amplifiers often have VERY low output impedance (and high
current). As a result, they work well with a wide variety of headphone impedances. However,
pairing a headphone whose load impedance is lower than the amplifier’s source impedance
will most likely create audible playback distortion.

This is why low impedance headphones are not recommended for high output impedance
amplifiers, such as OTL tube designs like the Bottlehead Crack or Darkvoice 336SE. Stick
with very high impedance headphones (200 ohms and up) for this type of amplifier.

Nwavguy explained that

“…higher impedance headphones also require less current to drive and that typically reduces
distortion in multiple ways. It makes them more immune to output impedance differences
between sources and also less sensitive to long cables and sharing a common wire in 3 wire
cables and 3 wire connectors (i.e. headphone plugs and jacks). The amplifiers driving
headphones nearly always produce lower distortion into higher impedances… Tube amps
with no output transformers (like the Bottlehead Crack), for example, have much higher
distortion into low impedance headphones.”

An
illustration of higher loads yielding lower distortion and noise. From Texas Instruments.

Damping Factor

Damping factor is the amount of control an amplifier has over the driver. It is often described
as the ability of the amplifier to control driver motion once the signal has stopped. Damping
factor is most apparent in low frequency reproduction, where low damping can cause loose,

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boomy and indistinct bass, while high damping tends to make bass sound tighter and cleaner,
but subjectively less warm.

Damping factor is measured as the ratio between the driver impedance and amplifier
impedance, and is expressed in the format ‘2:1’ (where the first number is the headphone
impedance and the second is the source output impedance) or as a single number ‘2’ (as in
this case to represent the driver impedance).

Commonly a damping factor greater than 2.5:1 and nearer to 8:1 is considered optimal
(headphone impedance 2.5x to 8x greater than the source impedance).

The term ‘rule of eighths’ is used as a rough guide. Divide the headphone impedance by 8,
and that is the maximum source output impedance (32 ohm headphones / 8 = 4 ohm
maximum source output impedance). In practice, it isn’t that strict a rule and often success
can be had with a greater range.

This ideal is based on the theory that regardless of how large an impedance spike is in the
headphone driver’s response, a high enough damping factor prevents the frequency response
from varying more than 1 dB (not typically audible).

“…if an amplifier’s output impedance is significantly more than an eighth of the headphone’s
impedance, the frequency response and sound of the headphone can change. This results in
bigger mismatches and creates more variation from the headphone’s default sound signature.
The way that a headphone responds to an amplifier with output impedance higher than one
eighth of the headphone can be entirely erratic – different headphones will respond in
different ways, but generally the results will be negative.” – RHA Audio

Bass Roll-Off

Bass roll-off refers to frequency response playback audibly decreasing towards the lower
frequencies.

In general, you should expect bass roll-off using headphones with an impedance lower than
2x the source output impedance.

However, low-frequency response when matching headphones and amplifiers is a very

complicated topic. Coupling between the amp and headphones (capacitors, transformers, etc)
and the headphone’s inductive reactance below its resonant frequency also contribute to bass
roll-off.

Low damping factor is commonly associated with bass ‘bloom’ or ‘boom’ around the
headphone’s resonant frequency. In practice, this also leads to a perceived roll-off below
resonant frequency (and a very measurable roll-off if the amp’s coupling or output impedance
are poorly matched to the headphones).

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A simple chart illustrating rapid bass roll-off (decreased volume output) as the frequency
lowers. From Sound And Vision.
“As output impedance increases electrical damping is reduced. The bass performance of the
headphones, as designed by the manufacture[r], may be audibly compromised if there’s
insufficient damping. The bass might become more “boomy” and less controlled. The
transient response becomes worse and the deep bass performance is compromised (the
headphones will roll off sooner at low frequencies)… it’s almost always less accurate
compared to using a low impedance source.” – NwAvGuy

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Sony TA-ZH1ES headphone amplifier with both balanced and unbalanced outputs from Sony.

Balanced vs Unbalanced Amplifier Impedance

A typical unbalanced (single-ended) headphone amplifier is what we’ve been discussing in

this article. It derives its name from the relative impedance to ground of the two connections
in each channel (hot or positive and ground or negative). Because the impedance to ground
differs, we call it unbalanced.

A balanced output however, has two signal phases per channel. Each phase has an equal
impedance relative to ground, hence the name balanced. The advantage of balanced
connections over unbalanced connections is common-mode noise rejection.

Because any interference is imprinted equally on the two phases’ equal impedance, that
common-mode interference cancels out. The usual approaches to driving balanced outputs can
also impact audio quality because output impedance is effectively doubled.

“The damping factor will degrade by a factor of 2 because both amplifiers contribute to the
source impedance of the balanced amplifier (output impedance is doubled). Distortion will
usually increase because each amplifier is required to drive half of the impedance that would
be seen by an unbalanced amplifier.” – Benchmark Media Systems

“Balanced amplifier” is something of a misnomer. Balanced and unbalanced are types of

interconnections between devices (like an amp and a headphone); these terms do not refer to
specific amplifier architectures. Usually when you see the phrase “balanced amplifier” it is
referring to a differential amplifier without shared grounds and balanced outputs.

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A variety of sources and amplifiers and their output impedances:

Device Output Impedance (Ohm)

Chord Hugo 2 0.025
Schiit Ragnarok < 0.03
Chord Mojo 0.075
Schiit Jotunheim < 0.1 balanced or single-ended
JDS Labs Atom 0.1
Monoprice Liquid Spark 0.1
Fiio A3 < 0.2
Schiit Magni < 0.3
Apple iPhone 7 + adapter 0.37
JDS Labs Objective 2 0.54
iFi xDSD <1
iFi Micro iDSD BL <1
Fiio Q1 Mk 2 < 1.2
Apple iPad Air 1.6
Fiio M6 <2
iFi xCan < 2 balanced, < 1 single-ended
Apple iPhone 6s 4.5
Burson Audio Play 8
Feliks Elise 40 - 50
Bottlehead Crack 120

Conclusion
Let’s take a moment to summarize what we’ve discussed about impedance. It’s a complicated
topic, but it doesn’t have to be confusing.

 There are two types of impedance (measured in Ohms): headphone impedance and
source impedance. Impedance matching between headphone and source is done to
ensure a good combination of sound quality and sufficient volume. A match means
‘complimentary’ not ‘equal’.
 Pairing a headphone with an impedance of 2.5-8 times higher than the source
impedance should yield good results. This recommended ratio is commonly known as
the ‘rule of eighths’ and contributes to proper driver control (damping factor). Pairing
a headphone with an equal or lower impedance than the source will likely result in
unpredictable (poor) sound quality.
 Sensitivity is also an important factor in headphones, and is a measurement of
loudness at a certain power input (usually given as decibels per 1 mW). While
sensitivity and headphone impedance both influence volume, they are not linked.
Headphones vary greatly in impedance and sensitivity and both must be considered
when selecting an appropriate amplifier.

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  Sensitive (100 dB+), low impedance (8-32 ohm) headphones will typically pair well
with a portable source (such as a phone) without much benefit from a separate
amplifier. Less sensitive (less than 95 dB), and/or medium to high impedance (more
than 50 ohm) headphones will typically benefit in sound quality and volume with a
more robust amplifier than a phone (or portable device) provides.
 Headphone impedance ratings can be misleading because dynamic headphones vary in
impedance at different frequencies and are not flat in response (the rating is for a
single frequency). Planar dynamic drivers do not suffer from this problem and are flat
in impedance across all frequencies.
 Higher impedance headphones require more source voltage (something portable
devices are not good at) and lower impedance headphones require more source current
(something OTL tube amplifiers are not good at providing).
 While some high impedance headphones are made to an elevated standard (such as
utilizing thinner voice coil wires) and can be capable of lower distortion, higher
impedance does not necessarily equate with better sound quality.

NwAvGuy tells us that “…a “perfect” source has an output impedance of zero ohms. This
means it will always deliver the same output into any load.” Since we live in the land of
compromise rather than perfection, we have to make educated decisions when selecting an
amplifier for our headphones.

Luckily, there is almost a guarantee that someone out there has tried and written (or
YouTubed) about their experiences with the combination of headphone and source you are
considering.

Now you know to disregard or be skeptical when you hear that “impedance is unimportant”
when considering new headphones or amplifiers. Contrary to some opinions, it’s not all about
sensitivity. Those folks have probably never considered the audible impacts of source and
headphone impedance matching.

Personally, I occupy a very specialized niche of the headphone world. I own (and love) a
Bottlehead Crack OTL amplifier. This means that my headphone choices are VERY limited
when selecting an appropriate pairing; there are very few 200+ ohm headphone options.
Luckily it sounds so good that I’m happy to live with the limited selection.

Of course, it does require that I own a few solid-state amps (as well) for all those other low
impedance, low sensitivity headphones that I can’t resist. The sacrifices we must make for a
hobby!

Trav Wilson
https://www.headphonesty.com/2019/04/headphone-impedance-demystified/
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