Browsing through Sennheiser's catalogue, I see that their headphones are rated at 16, 24, 32, 50, 64 and 300Ω.
I take it that the lower the impedance, the better the headphone/earphone is suited to portable applications (mp3 players, etc). And the higher the impedance, the more power is required to drive, thus dedicated amplification becomes more important.
Now, at what stage would you call for dedicated amplification as a necessity to extract decent performance (in the context of the Sennheiser range)? 300Ω only? Or would you extend the necessity to the 64 and 50Ω rating as well? Or is it just not as simple as that (speaker sensitivity and resistance working together, etc)?
In a nutshell, I'm wondering if I should go for 32Ω headphones now, knowing that a dedicated amp is not happening anytime soon.
I take it that the lower the impedance, the better the headphone/earphone is suited to portable applications (mp3 players, etc). And the higher the impedance, the more power is required to drive, thus dedicated amplification becomes more important.
Now, at what stage would you call for dedicated amplification as a necessity to extract decent performance (in the context of the Sennheiser range)? 300Ω only? Or would you extend the necessity to the 64 and 50Ω rating as well? Or is it just not as simple as that (speaker sensitivity and resistance working together, etc)?
In a nutshell, I'm wondering if I should go for 32Ω headphones now, knowing that a dedicated amp is not happening anytime soon.
