Do I really need an amp for 80ohm? (80 vs 30 ohm)

[Season2mask]

I've had my dt 770 pro headphones for years now and I've never had an issue with them. I'm not an audiophile in the slightest but they've been more than loud enough for me and the sound seems pretty good. I use an old DGX Xonar soundcard

The cable finally broke today and I'm going to order another pair, but I came across an article talking about an amp being needed for 80 ohm to 'drive it properly'

1. Would I actually hear that much of a difference with an amp?
2. Should I go for the 32ohm instead and what are the downsides of that?

Thank you

[mrgreenthump]

From my exp, you cannot simply look at ohms and say something is easy or hard to drive. For instance Fostex T50RP is notoriously hard to drive and it's a pretty standard 50 ohm. Then Sennheiser has 300 and 600 ohm headphones that are somewhat easy to drive. The 80 ohm I'd qualify as low impedance still and you shouldn't have problems driving them unless you want to use them with your phone.

As to difference with an amp. I don't really know much about Xonar cards, had one before and it worked ok. But difference to what I got after was night and day. Mostly with noise floor going down and my current equipment has way more power. And that's kinda the thing you would get, more power and cleaner power. But for most that already is more than they need. So I'd say if you have been satisfied with your soundcard. Get the new headphones and try them out with it. If you feel like no matter what, the sound isn't loud enough or starts degrading, then yes. You need an amp. But again I have a feeling you don't need one. As to if you should get one, it's a whole another topic. Some people say absolutely regardless of your situation. I say if you are strapped for cash, go with the bare minimum and upgrade later if you need to.

The 32ohm, I see people saying it's a portable version, hence if possible go for the 80ohm.

[Thes]

If it's loud enough you probably don't need an amp for anything.

[Ange]

I've had my dt 770 pro headphones for years now and I've never had an issue with them. I'm not an audiophile in the slightest but they've been more than loud enough for me and the sound seems pretty good. I use an old DGX Xonar soundcard

The cable finally broke today and I'm going to order another pair, but I came across an article talking about an amp being needed for 80 ohm to 'drive it properly'

1. Would I actually hear that much of a difference with an amp?
2. Should I go for the 32ohm instead and what are the downsides of that?

Thank you

The simple answer is that impedance simply doesn't directly relate to efficiency. The Ohm rating of a headphone is simply the electrical resistance of the driver circuit. Push a given amount of voltage into a driver circuit and you'll get a given amperage flow, determined by the resistance. Everything about the driver design, can design, etc. affects how efficiently the headphone turns power into sound. In other words, how many milliwatts it takes to create a given dB SPL.

To make things even more complicated and what basicly makes different headphone comparisons close to impossible for amp requirements, is that all power ratings are done with 1000Hz. The drivers have to move more air with lower frequencies and if the peak is not sustained with the amplification, it just means that the volume will go down for those frequencies. => "lack of bass???" topics with headphones are a good indication for headphones that might be a bit more demanding for the average mainboard/phone using customers

=> a bigger headphone driver with slightly lower efficiency will of course require much more voltage for lower frequencies as the 1000Hz numbers suggest.

The slightly more demanding headphones require a propper 2-4V amp for lower frequencies and the list for propper amps that can deliver that much, is very short with 1000€ budget and I could name you 2 of the last 15 years with ~500€ budget.

Everything else is at phone/USB audiointerface levels of amplification around 1000mV and thats not enough for lower frequencies, so the headphones will sound very different with or without a good amp.

Get a 32ohm/high efficiency variant if you dont want to spend money on an amp.

Since phones and 20€ DIY amps are able to produce a clean 1000mV amplification, you might understand why there is so much marketing driven talk in forums/reddit for the 50-250€ headphone amp range. Its very lucrative to sell 20€ amps for 10x its value to people that dont look in datasheets for the actual amp output. Keep that in mind if you read some recommendations to the next/best ~1000mV headphone amp, those will not do anything for the more demanding headphones.

[Blupparen]

I did a quick google of your soundcard and it said it has a built-in headphone amp. 80ohm is no issue at all for it. You will probably have to increase the volume slightly.

[naniplu]

Depends on your pc activity. I agree with my opinions.