Up next in 10
Dave Taylor Explains: What is Headphone Impedance?
375 views
May 29, 2025
If you're in the market for headphones, you already know that there are a lot of impedance choices. From 32 Ohms to 250 Ohms, up to even 600 Ohms. But what the heck do Ohms have to do with your headphones and what should you be seeking if you're buying headphones to plug into your audio gear, smartphone or mixing board? Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ worked with Beyerdynamic to get a crate of different headphones to test how impedance affects listening experience and shares his experiences in this video. Watch and learn... Featured headphones: Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro at https://north-america.beyerdynamic.com/dt-770-pro.html
View Video Transcript
0:00
Same headphones, different impedance. Let's find out what that means
0:10
Dave Taylor here, and I feel like I won the headphone lottery. I have three different
0:14
versions of the Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro, all with different impedances. And the purpose of this is
0:22
so I could test and try and really understand what's the relationship between impedance and
0:28
the audio source. Now, starting at the bottom, these are the 32 ohm version. These are most likely
0:34
what most people will be buying. We'll come back to that. And then this is the 80 ohm version
0:40
which is actually probably going to give you a little better sound. Again, we'll come back to
0:44
that. And then at the top end, this is the 250 ohm version. And so impedance is basically a measure
0:52
of efficiency and it's measured in ohms. The bigger the impedance, the more impedance that you have
0:58
have, the more power you need to drive your audio gear. However, the more impedance you
1:03
have, generally the relationship is you get actually better sound, you just need to put
1:08
more work into getting there. Generally that's done through an amplifier. So, what it means
1:14
is that if you have low impedance and you have a low audio output device like a phone
1:19
you're going to do well. So the 32 ohm headphones are going to work great with a computer, they'll
1:26
work great with a smartphone That works just fine Tablet for watching Netflix or something these are going to work If you plug the 250 ohm headphones into your phone you going to have to turn it all the way up and you not going to hear a
1:41
whole lot because it's not really a great match. For something like these at 250 ohms, you want to
1:47
use something like this. And this is the Audioengine N22 amplifier and it has a built-in amp designed
1:55
for headphones. So this is not necessarily something you're going to tote around in your
2:00
computer bag, but at home or at your office, this is going to give you amazing sound when paired with
2:06
this. Now, again, if I use the high impedance headphones on a low audio output device like a
2:15
smartphone, then I'm not going to hear much. But what happens if I do the opposite? What if I take
2:20
the 32 ohm headphones and I plug it into something like this, or even maybe something smaller? So this
2:27
is actually also from Audio Engine. This is a digital og converter or DAC and it's great
2:33
You plug it into your computer's USB port and then you have an audio jack on the end and this
2:38
is an amp. This is basically an amplifier which can take that low audio from your computer and
2:45
really punch it up and make it sound better. This is really cool. Now if I do something like that or
2:53
especially with this, with the 32 ohms, then what's going to possibly and probably likely happen is something called blowout
3:00
And what that means is you're basically giving it way more power than they can handle
3:05
And you're going to end up with either bad sounding music because you get clipping and distortion or you can literally damage the headphones So what this all means is that you need to match the impedance of your headphones with the devices you working with
3:21
So if I'm working in a studio and I'm doing audio mixing or something
3:25
I'm going to probably want 250 ohm or something at the high end because I really want that clarity
3:32
I want to be able to hear all the nuances of the music. and I have a device, an amplifier, that's going to help that happen
3:40
If I then take these home and plug them into my phone or computer, I'm going to be a little disappointed
3:45
Conversely, if I really just want to have something where I can plug it into the side of my laptop
3:49
when I'm at Starbucks and have pretty good sound, then this is going to be a whole lot more than just pretty good sound
3:55
The DT770 Pro 32 ohms is going to sound terrific and it's going to work really well with a low power source
4:03
You want to find something in the middle. 80 ohms is about as high as you want to get if you're going to be using it for things like mobile devices
4:12
Again, once you get into the really high impedance, then you're just going to find your phone or your computer really can't drive it that well by itself
4:23
So that's sort of how this all works. So figure out what audio sources you're going to use
4:30
If they have amplifiers or there is a separate amp or you have a device that gives you amplification of your audio signal
4:37
then you can work your way up to the higher impedance headphones and get a beautiful result
4:43
If that not the case and you don want to tote this around while you on campus and you want to just be able to plug into your phone or tablet or laptop and have really nice sound then go for lower impedance and just be careful that if you ever do get into a situation
4:58
where you can plug it into the mixing board at the studio or something
5:03
make sure not to turn it up too much because it's not going to be good for it. So go into a studio, you're going to find these sort of things
5:10
Go into a computer lab at a college, you're going to find these. So, that's how this all works. I hope this is helpful. I appreciate Beyerdynamic loaning me all these different headphones for this experiment. It is actually pretty interesting to bounce around between them, and, you know, if you listen to music pretty soft, you probably could get away with whatever mix and match you want, but I like to listen, especially like with jazz or something, I like to listen to it pretty loud, and I want it to be able to get loud
5:36
So, I like to match my impedance with my source. That's all I got for you
5:41
If you're interested in the DT-770s from Beyerdynamic, they're terrific at all three levels
5:46
and they're about $159, so that's a pretty darn good deal. Please go ahead and click on that subscribe button, because I appreciate it
5:54
And if you found this video helpful and useful, a thumbs up never hurt anyone here on YouTube
5:59
So, this is Dave Taylor, and I will catch you in my next video