Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Can low impedance and sensitive headphones really "scale"? (Read 1195 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Can low impedance and sensitive headphones really "scale"?

Hi everyone,

You often read claims that a certain low impedance (<= 32Ω), high sensitivity (> 100dB SPL/mW) dynamic driver headphone sounds good with a portable player but will sound much better if used with an amp, i.e., it "scales" well. What's the technical basis for this, if any? I can only think that such headphone has a big variance of input impedance among frequencies, which coupled to a high impedance portable output results in a messed up frequency response? But is this listenable in practice / detectable in a blind test or are the improvement claims just subjective?

Thanks!