Is 250 ohms too much impedance for laptop headphones?

Toonces

Golden Member
Feb 5, 2000
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yes, I'd look at 30-60 personally. Unless you get an external amp (USB or analogue), that is.
 

Baked

Lifer
Dec 28, 2004
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You need an amp for headphone w/ that much ohms. But poor people just turn the volume all the way up and ignore the noise.
 

UncleWai

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2001
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I tried my sennheiser hd650 on my toshiba satellite notebook, it actually came up decent.
But if you are looking to get the best out of them, I would look for a new sound card and amp.
 
Mar 11, 2004
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It won't be that bad. It will definitely sound subdued compared to what it should, and I would agree that you should look into getting an amp (and really an external sound card or something as most onboard laptop audio is fairly bad quality), but it really won't be that terrible.
 

yhelothar

Lifer
Dec 11, 2002
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Yes.
Anything more than 20 is too much if your laptop's line out isn't amped.
Some are amped, some aren't. My audigy2, for example, has amp. My chaintech av-710 is a straight up line-out.
 

thirtythree

Diamond Member
Aug 7, 2001
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Originally posted by: virtualgames0
Yes.
Anything more than 20 is too much if your laptop's line out isn't amped.
Some are amped, some aren't. My audigy2, for example, has amp. My chaintech av-710 is a straight up line-out.
More than 20? That seems a bit low.
 

Demon-Xanth

Lifer
Feb 15, 2000
20,551
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High impedance=lower power.
Low impedance=higher power.

250 ohms should be fine.

5V peak signal@30 ohms=167mA. 833mW power (peak).
5V peak signal@250 ohms=20mA. 100mW power (peak).

Edit:
This is coming from the thought of overloading the onboard drivers. Not sound quality.
 

thirtythree

Diamond Member
Aug 7, 2001
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Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
High impedance=lower power.
Low impedance=higher power.

250 ohms should be fine.

5V peak signal@30 ohms=167mA. 833mW power (peak).
5V peak signal@250 ohms=20mA. 100mW power (peak).
I see. I don't know what you just said, but I ended up getting a cheaper 60 ohm pair, so I should be okay.
 

Ika

Lifer
Mar 22, 2006
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Originally posted by: thirtythree
Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
High impedance=lower power.
Low impedance=higher power.

250 ohms should be fine.

5V peak signal@30 ohms=167mA. 833mW power (peak).
5V peak signal@250 ohms=20mA. 100mW power (peak).
I see. I don't know what you just said, but I ended up getting a cheaper 60 ohm pair, so I should be okay.

What did you get, perchance? I hope you didn't waste your money on something crappy. Like Bose.
 

thirtythree

Diamond Member
Aug 7, 2001
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Originally posted by: Aflac
Originally posted by: thirtythree
Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
High impedance=lower power.
Low impedance=higher power.

250 ohms should be fine.

5V peak signal@30 ohms=167mA. 833mW power (peak).
5V peak signal@250 ohms=20mA. 100mW power (peak).
I see. I don't know what you just said, but I ended up getting a cheaper 60 ohm pair, so I should be okay.

What did you get, perchance? I hope you didn't waste your money on something crappy. Like Bose.
I got these. Not top-of-the-line, but an improvement over what I had (I listened to them at a Radio Shack before buying them online). Plus they're full-sized and semi-portable. The main reason I chose Koss is because of the lifetime warranty. These were the other ones I was looking at (250 ohm).