i learned impedance the audiophile way= the more ohms the more power to drive because of the greater resistance (and that's just basic electricity there, no need to give a citation for THAT.)
That is simplified to the point where it's pretty much incorrect. Impedance and resistance are two different things.
Impedance is not a constant, it varies at all frequencies, which makes the impedance specification pretty much useless in determining how "hard" a headphone is to drive.
People also seem to be confused as to what the phrase "hard to drive" even means; it has absolutely nothing to do with sound quality, only volume. Any differences you notice in sound quality between amplifiers are either psychoacoustic (ie the placebo affect) or caused by one amp being designed better than the other (and most headphone amplifiers that push a lot of volume
are the ones that are designed better).
oh and here's where i got that figure from:
http://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/1vxhpq/using_sennheiser_hd800_without_amp_on_phonepc/cewyymu
Because some random audiophool on Reddit is so trustable.
Bottom line: All you need is an amp that doesn't stuff all over the sound and gets your headphones loud enough, and a very well designed DAC that also doesn't stuff all over the sound. That's it. There is no magical way for a headphone amplifier to make a headphone perform better. The simple fact of the matter is that, as previously stated, there are a lot of really poorly designed pieces of equipment in this industry and getting something that's all-around good is very difficult.
