High/low impedance speakers vs high/low impedance headphones

[hybridauth_google_112370865474665644907]

Hi all,

Why is it that low nominal impedance floorstanding speakers are considered more difficult to drive than higher nominal impedance speakers - but low nominal impedance headphones are considered easier to drive than higher impedance headphones?

Much apprciated 🙂

 

[pyrrhon]

Hi all,

Why is it that low nominal impedance floorstanding speakers are considered more difficult to drive than higher nominal impedance speakers - but low nominal impedance headphones are considered easier to drive than higher impedance headphones?

Much apprciated 🙂

Push against a wall is hard cause it resist, push against the air is hard cause it doesn't and you stumble.

 

[hybridauth_google_112370865474665644907]

Hi all,

Why is it that low nominal impedance floorstanding speakers are considered more difficult to drive than higher nominal impedance speakers - but low nominal impedance headphones are considered easier to drive than higher impedance headphones?

Much apprciated 🙂

Push against a wall is hard cause it resist, push against the air is hard cause it doesn't and you stumble.

Hi mate and thanks for the reply. But I'm having trouble understanding :-(

 

[pyrrhon]

Hi,

It's not an easy question. I think I undestand but I can't tell for sure. Impedance is the resistance and higher resistance ask more power so the logic is more impedance = difficult to drive. For speakers there is much lower impedance, it can fall close to 0. It raises another difficulty: high current demand. To make an analogy, it's hard to pressurize a pipe when the valves are fully open. I think that if a headphone would drop below 4 ohms it would get harder to drive too. It's not an opposite logic, it's rather that speaker range between 4-8 ohms while headphone are more like 30-300. With speakers you'll get amperage problems while headphone will ask more voltage.

I just wish somebody could explain it better cause I'm dummy with electricity.

 

[hybridauth_google_112370865474665644907]

Hi,

It's not an easy question. I think I undestand but I can't tell for sure. Impedance is the resistance and higher resistance ask more power so the logic is more impedance = difficult to drive. For speakers there is much lower impedance, it can fall close to 0. It raises another difficulty: high current demand. To make an analogy, it's hard to pressurize a pipe when the valves are fully open. I think that if a headphone would drop below 4 ohms it would get harder to drive too. It's not an opposite logic, it's rather that speaker range between 4-8 ohms while headphone are more like 30-300. With speakers you'll get amperage problems while headphone will ask more voltage.?

I just wish somebody could explain it better cause I'm dummy with electricity.

Hi mate, yes I agree the way I wrote it wasn't clear. So I'll try to ask the questions a little better.

4-ohm speakers are considered more difficult to drive than 8-ohm speakers.

But the opposite is true for headphones. 600-ohm headphones are considered more difficult to drive than 30-ohm headphones, for example.

But I really can't understand the reasons ! 🙂

 

[Ajani]

Hopefully a technical expert will jump in, but here's my take on it:

Both are extremes - Speakers have very low impendance to begin with. 8 ohms being fairly standard and can drop to even 1 ohm. Headphones have very high impedance 30 - 600 ohms. So at the extremes 4 ohms or less and above 300 ohms, you are asking a lot more from your amp (for different reasons).

I know with headphones the challenge with high impedance is getting sufficient volume out of the headphones. Since the higher the impedance, the less power (wattage) the amp produces. So if you want to use your headphones with your phone/portable device you want to be closer to 30 ohms. If you plan to use them with a dedicated headphone amp, then 600 ohms is your best bet.

Anyway, no idea if they helped at all, and hopefully an expert will come in and explain it properly.