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Why dont ultra high impedance headphone exist?

shoto

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I have though why noone has made any headphones with very very high impedance. above 1000 ohm.

Why? because amplifiers wont be needed along as they are sensitive enough.

For the target, I can not listen to HD6XX above 300mV, but for high dynamic range recording lets say 500mV is needed, for me a 1200 ohm headphone can have enough volume with normal 2V DAC .
Standard can be increased if it was needed, some DAC have 4V output, with that we could use 2400 ohm in the same way or 1600 ohm for more volume.

So why not? You don't need amps and add no more distortion to the signal.

Ok, for portable gear we can use low impedance, but it could be standard for desktop gear when there is no voltage limit.
Even if its silly, there is not even one headphone like this today.
 
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majingotan

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You're referring to electrostatic headphones in this case which as impedances that can go as high as 100000 ohms. They need 600V or higher to operate though with little current involved.
 

Dunring

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The Beyerdynamic T1 original peaks over 1,000ohm and averages about 890ohm. Highest I've heard of.
 
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Hifihedgehog

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The vintage or retro Sennheiser HD 414 in its earlier form was 2000 ohms.
 
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shoto

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You're referring to electrostatic headphones in this case which as impedances that can go as high as 100000 ohms. They need 600V or higher to operate though with little current involved.
im not, normal dynamic headphones designed to have high impedance, unless there is a reason they can't or won't go above 600 ohm
 

LTig

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My very first headphone I bought as a kid came with a DIY kit for a very simple AM receiver kit (diode detector, no amplification at all). AFAIR it had 2000 Ohm. And it was not Hifi at all.
 

Curvature

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Back when headphones were mainly used in studios for tracking, they were driven by speaker amplifiers and so required high impedances to absorb all of that extra current.
 

mhardy6647

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My very first headphone I bought as a kid came with a DIY kit for a very simple AM receiver kit (diode detector, no amplification at all). AFAIR it had 2000 Ohm. And it was not Hifi at all.
Indeed. Crystal radios (e.g.) were/are used to drive high impedance headphones (or earphones) directly.
Actually the fidelity of a crystal (AM) radio is probably as good as the technology is capable of delivering.

J.W. Miller (the coil people) made and sold a hifi passive AM radio kit at a time (and for a time).

1667091961301.png

source: https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Antique-Radio-Classified/1990s/1991-11.pdf

1956DecPE.jpg


source: https://onetuberadio.com/2016/12/19/1956-j-w-miller-model-565-and-595-crystal-set/


It is possible to make a slope-detection FM crystal radio set, too, but I am not sure the audio fidelity will be great.
 
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