INTRO: Headphones range in impedance from 16 ohms to 600 ohms.

And some models even come in multiple impedances. So which

impedance is best? The answer mostly depends on what you plan to plug
them into.
WHATS BEST? Are lower impedance headphones better than higher
impedance ones? Whats the best output impedance? This is over
simplifying, but here are some general guidelines:
If youre looking for headphones to use with a portable player or
laptop, stick to the range of 16 32 ohms with a sensitivity
(efficiency) rating of at least 100 dB/mW. There are some higher
impedance headphones, up to 80 ohms or so, that are efficient
enough to work well with at least some portable gearespecially
if you dont like it very loud. But, in general, the lower the
impedance the better the match with battery powered devices.
If you dont know the output impedance of your source device, its
best to avoid balanced armature headphones as they can interact
with a higher output impedance in some ugly ways that make them
sound substantially worse.
If your source complies with the European maximum volume
regulations (many new phones do even when sold outside of
Europe) it is even more important to choose headphones with,
ideally, a 16 ohm impedance at at least 100 dB/mW sensitivity. The
European compliant devices have even less maximum output than
most other portable gear.
If youre using a dedicated headphone amp or DAC, check the
manufactures specifications or guidelines for the recommended
headphone impedance range.
If youre looking at headphones with less than 100 dB/mW check
out at least the first few paragraphs of the More Power article.

DIFFERENT HEADPHONE IMPEDANCES: In the world of

consumer speakers, nearly all have an impedance in a relatively narrow
range of 4 8 ohms. This makes it easier for designers of amplifiers,
receivers, etc. as they pretty much know what the speaker impedance
will be. With headphones, however, things are a lot different. There are
few well defined standards, so impedances vary widely between
manufactures and headphones designed for portable, home and
studio/professional use. The range from 16 ohms to nearly 40 times
higher at 600 ohms. This creates lots of compatibility issues.
WHY IMPEDANCE MATTERS: Headphone sources generally put
out very different amounts of power into different headphone
impedances. For example the Clip+ portable player can put out 16 mW
into 16 ohms but only 0.8 mW into 300 ohms. The FiiO E7 can put out
over 100 mW into 16 ohms but only 2.8 mW into 600 ohms. And some
sources are not as compatible with low impedances such as the Mini3
and FiiO E9.
LOUD ENOUGH: Most headphone sources can manage at least 5 mW
of power into 16 ohms. With headphones rated for 100 dB/mW (the
suggested minimum above for portable use) that means 107 dB SPL
which is in the range of 105 dB SPL 115 dB SPL that most consider
loud enough. See: More Power
WHATS CONSIDERED HIGH IMPEDANCE? Im not aware of
any hard rule but generally its safe to say 100 ohms and higher qualifies
as high impedance. Such headphones are usually not designed for
portable use. And its safe to say 32 ohms and lower qualify as low
impedance and typically work well for all applications. That leaves a
gray area between 32 and 100 ohms where other factors determine how
suitable the headphones are for a given source.
BALANCED ARMATURE IEMs: Many of the high-end in-ear
monitor type headphones use a technology known as balanced armature
(also called micro armature, etc.). Some examples including popular
in-ear models from Shure, Etymotic, Ultimate Ears, etc. These

headphones usually have a rated impedance between 16 and 32 ohms but

their actual impedance typically varies greatly with frequency. The 21
ohm Ultimate Ears SuperFi 5, for example, ranges from 10 ohms to 90
ohms. These wide variations interact in often unfavorable ways with the
Output Impedance of the source.
WHY DO HEADPHONE IMPEDANCES VARY SO MUCH? There
are multiple reasons:
History Favored High Impedance - Before portable nice
sounding portable gear came along most high quality headphones
were plugged into either home stereo equipment or professional
studio equipment. Because it was cheap and easy, those headphone
jacks on receivers from the 60s 80s typically had a very high
output impedance. They simply used large resistors to drop the
power from the speaker outputs.
Outdated 1996 Standard A standard was set in 1996 for
headphone output impedance to be 120 ohmsapparently more as
a convenience for makers of gear with with headphone jacks.
Stereophile has since summed up their opinion of the standard
with: Whoever wrote that must live in a fantasy world. A much
lower output impedance has significant advantages but the poorly
conceived standard still likely had an influence towards higher
impedance headphones.
High-End Headphones Favor High Impedance - There can be
some significant advantages to higher impedance headphones. A
higher impedance allows for more turns of wire to be used in the
voice coil of the driver. This can result in a better motor system
with fewer compromises resulting in better overall sound. 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 headphone nearly always produce lower
distortion into higher impedances.
The iPod Revolution Favors Low Impedance As of 2009 over
220 million iPods have been sold. And before iPods there were
other portable devices. Its probably fair to say, if you include the
headphone output on music-friendly cell phones, there are now
over a billion portable audio devices in use. This is important
because battery powered devices dont work well with high
impedance headphones. So they forced development of lower
impedance headphones that would work well. But this was in
direct conflict with the above three paragraphs. So you have highend goals, and lots of history competing with the massive market
potential of a billion portable devices.
WHAT HEADPHONES CAN I USE WITH MY SOURCE? This is
main question most people have. It comes down to just three things:
Power Requirements Will a given source have a enough power
to drive a given pair of headphones to a loud enough volume level?
The 100 dB/mW guideline mentioned earlier should get someone
close. For headphones with a lower sensitivity (or no sensitivity)
specification, see the More Power article.
Device Output Impedance This is tricky because the output
impedance of most sources is unknown. But the idea is to follow
the 1/8th Rule described in Output Impedance Explained. If you
multiply the output impedance of your source by eight, thats the
lowest impedance headphones you should use with that source.
The FiiO E9 amp, for example, has a 10 ohm output impedance.
So it should only be used with headphones of 80 ohms or higher if
you want to be assured of the best sound quality.

 Source Distortion Some sources have a hard time with lower

impedance headphones. Tube amps with no output transformers
(like the Bottlehead Crack), for example, have much higher
distortion into low impedance headphones.
CAN A MISMATCH DAMAGE ANYTHING? Using the wrong
headphones for a given device generally wont harm anything besides
the sound. But some sources are capable of very high output and might
damage more sensitive headphones. But this is only an issue if you turn
up the volume well past sane levelswhich could happen accidentally.
Some headphone amps have a gain switch to help prevent this problem.
WHEN IS A HEADPHONE AMP OR DAC REQUIRED? If a given
pair of headphones will not play loudly enough, or has other obvious
problems with a given source, then a headphone amplifier or DAC may
help. But these devices can also create their own problems. And if a
given source already has a low output impedance and enough output
power, than adding an amplifier can often make things worse instead of
better. See: Headphone Amps/Dacs Explained.
BOTTOM LINE: Its best to follow the guidelines above unless you
otherwise can be fairly certain a particular pair of headphones will work
well with a particular source.

TECH SECTION:

VOLTAGE AND CURRENT: Its important to have at least some

understanding of voltage and current to understand impedance and what
follows. Voltage is analogous to water pressure (i.e. PSI) while current is
analogous to the volume of water (i.e. gallons per minute). If you let
water run out of the end of your garden hose with nothing attached you
get a lot of flow (current) and can fill a bucket quickly but the pressure

at the end of the hose is near zero. If you put a small nozzle on the hose
the pressure (voltage) is much higher but volume of water is reduced (it
takes longer to fill the same bucket). The two are typically inversely
related. High pressure usually means low flow and visa versa. The same
is true of voltage and current.
HOSE NOZZLES: Impedance is roughly analogous to the size of a
hose nozzle. A high impedance headphone is like a tiny nozzle. To get
much water out you need a lot of pressure (voltage). A low impedance
headphone is more like filling a bucket and requires more flow but not
much pressure. A lot of headphone outputs on devices are good at one,
OR the other, but not both. So its important to know which you have
and match the headphone accordingly.
HEADPHONE LOAD IMPEDANCE: This article talks about two
different kinds of impedancethe impedance of the headphones
(usually easy to find) and the impedance of the source (usually difficult
to find). A perfect source has an output impedance of zero ohms. This
means it will always deliver the same output into any load. In practice,
any output impedance below about 1 ohm approximates a zero ohm
source. The blue circle on the left above represents a perfect source,
the blue resistor (zig zag line) in the middle represents the output
impedance. And the resistor on the right represents the load impedance
(the headphones). If the output impedance is not zero, the voltage
produced by the source will be reduced when a load is connected. The
higher the output impedance, the greater the drop in voltage at the load.
This drop is given by the formula: Load Voltage = Source Voltage *
( Load Resistance / ( Load Impedance + Output Impedance) ). For more
information see Wikipedia Voltage Divider:

R vs Z: Resistance is measured in ohms and represented in electrical

engineering by the letter R. Its typically measured with a DC current
and its what a Digital Multi-Meter measures. Impedance, however, is
more complex and measured with an AC current and the letter Z is the
correct representation (but some still use R). 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 resistorsmost have significant
inductance and at least small amounts of capacitance. Theyre whats
known as a reactive load and the math is considerably more complex
than just the most basic form of Ohms Law.
MEASURING HEADPHONE IMPEDANCE: You cant measure
headphone impedance with a DMM (although many incorrectly try). The
more reactive the headphones are, the less accurate the reading will be as
the DMM is only measuring the DC resistance R not the AC
impedance Z. The DC resistance will nearly always be lower than the
AC impedance. And an AC impedance measurement is only valid at one
particular frequency so its best to plot if versus frequency in a graph. To
do this right requires specialized equipment that can monitor the current
and voltage independently over the entire audio band. I use my Prism
Sound dScope.
YOUR IMPEDANCE MAY VARY: Virtually all passive headphones
(without their own powered electronics) have a varying impedance that
changes with frequency. As described above, they don't behave like a

simple resistance when driven with typical audio signals. The gold
colored graph below shows the impedance, in ohms, of the Ultimate
Ears SuperFi 5 Pro in ear monitors. You can see theyre only at their
rated 21 ohm impedance below about 200 hz. The impedance rises to
nearly 90 ohms at about 1200 hz and drops to below 10 ohms at 11,000
hz:

PHASE: When impedance varies with frequency so will the phase. In

this case phase is the time difference between the peak voltage and
peak current. The greater the phase variation the more reactive the
load. Generally, the greater the phase shift, the more difficult the load is
to properly drive. The white curve above is the phase shift shown in
degrees. A simple resistor will have essentially zero phase shift with
frequency over the audio band.

HEADPHONE DESIGN COMPROMISES: Drivers, in speakers or

headphones, have moving mass. The diaphragm of the driver is
suspended in a way that allows it to move. The stiffness of this
suspension, the weight of the diaphragm, and sometimes the enclosure
its in, work together to form a natural resonant frequency. The main
resonance in full size headphones is usually in the bass frequencies and
most high quality drivers require some sort of damping to control this
resonance. If its not controlled, it tends to seriously degrade the bass
performance of the driver. The impedance peaks at this resonance.
Heres the popular Sennheiser HD280 headphones showing an obvious
bass resonance at 75 hz:

WHAT ABOUT TYPICAL EARBUDS? The vast majority of

reasonably priced dynamic (not balanced armature) earbuds headphones
have a 16 or 32 ohm nominal impedance that might vary by just 1 or 2
ohms. Here's the popular Sony MDR-EX51 which is mostly 17 ohms
and rises to 18 ohms at its 5 khz resonance:

HIGH END HEADPHONES: Heres the 300 ohm Sennheiser HD 650

which vary from about 305 ohms to 530 ohms: