Max headphone Impedance supported by Motherboard

[maateo0511]

I'm looking into buying some DT 770 PRO's and im not sure if I should get the 80 OHM or the 250 OHM version of it. I have an ASUS TUF B660 Plus WIFI D4 but im not sure if 250 ohms would be too much impedance for the motherboard.

[NinJake]

Would you ever consider upgrading your audio setup in the future? (Such as buying a dedicated amp/dac?) If so, go for the 250 ohm version. If not, stay safe with the 80 ohm variant.

[BobVonBob]

Either of them is probably fine, even the 250 ohm should reach uncomfortable listening volumes fairly easily, but if you want to guarantee you can cause permanent hearing loss in 10 minutes go with the 80 ohm. The biggest difference is really in the cables, the 80 ohm has a 3m straight cable, and the 250 ohm has a 3m coiled cable. Both are permanently attached, so unless you want to get into modding that's the most significant factor imo.

[saintlouisbagels]

1 hour ago, maateo0511 said:

I'm looking into buying some DT 770 PRO's and im not sure if I should get the 80 OHM or the 250 OHM version of it. I have an ASUS TUF B660 Plus WIFI D4 but im not sure if 250 ohms would be too much impedance for the motherboard.

Do you understand the difference between the two models?

The 80 Ohm is more fun and casual

The 250 Ohm is more detailed.

That doesn't mean one headphone is better than the other - I prefer the 80 Ohm. But it's a subtle difference.

 

The big difference is that I don't need to worry about having an amplifier with the 80 Ohm becomes sometimes I like to lay in bed listening on my phone.

[Spuriae]

Motherboards typically have 75Ω outputs, so the rule of thumb that higher impedance headphones are more difficult to drive from them isn't necessarily true (not that it's even a good rule of thumb to begin with). That said, the 250Ω model will probably end up being ~3dB quieter than the 80Ω when driven from a motherboard, but also have slightly cleaner bass and have a slightly different treble profile – however, this difference is primarily due to non-impedance differences in the driver design between the 80Ω and the rest of the Beyerdynamic drivers.

 

 

 

[GoldenSound]

Headphone impedance is very often misunderstood, and there's a bit of history to it.

From an electrical standpoint, there is no 'max impedance' an output will support. In fact, higher impedance loads are EASIER to drive due to requiring less current for the same voltage.
So you don't need to worry about your headphone impedance causing any issues there.

The headphones that are actually genuinely hard to drive are the low impedance, low sensitivity planars as these draw significant amounts of current. (Some extreme examples like the Hifiman Susvara people often run on speaker amplifiers).