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Researching a pair of headphones can feel like a pretty daunting task, given they have spec sheets covering a vast array of details like battery life, digital sound processing, and even extra features such as active noise cancellation. We recently covered how noise cancelling works, and that's clearly an important detail for consumer-grade headphones. But something you may not know is there's one key spec that higher-end, studio-grade headphones have that tells us those headphones might have better audio quality. That spec is impedance.

Put simply, the impedance factor in any electronic device is how much resistance an electric current may face when passing through a set of components. In the case of headphones, this translates to power and amplification requirements. A pair of high-end studio headphones contains components that tend to be more complicated and more intricate. That's because, there's a lot of engineering that goes into high-end headphones, with a focus on well-tuned components and specially selected material. With extra care put into the components, there are often more power needs for a pair of headphones. These extended power needs translate to a higher impedance, which can tell us something about the quality of the sound.

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So why does high impedance often associated with better sound? These higher-power components can have a meaningful effect on the audio, but perhaps the most obvious factor is that higher-impedance headphones can sound quieter when plugged into a standard device such as a laptop or phone. That's why lower-end headphones can frequently be seen as a better fit for the average listener who's using simpler playback devices. But let's not stop there; high impedance headphones can deliver a whole host of performance benefits for audiophiles.

Since high-impedance headphones have high-end components that when driven by a proper setup can have more power, those complicated components are designed to use that higher power to deliver detail, nuance, and extra depth in the audio. Because lower-impedance headphones are a result of those headphones having simpler, lower-power components, they won't tend to offer the detail or response as higher-impedance headphones — even if you drive them with an amp. This all means that higher-end headphones from higher-end brands could have a better chance of delivering better audio with the right playback stack. It's why we ranked top audiophile headphones recently, to figure out which ones handle this sort of test best.