Here’s what you better know about output impedance and why it’s such a drag on your stereo.
What Is Output Impedance?
To understand output impedance, we need to lay out some basic electrical engineering.
Thus, you’re going to lose some of the energy, often in the form of heat.
This is called resistance.
This is called capacitance.
Sticking with the pipe analogy, the water tends to flow in one direction.
The same is true of electrical currents, called inductance, and it’s particularly important to alternating-current devices.
Impedance is the sum of these factors, which involves a little complicated math.
Why Is Output Impedance Important?
Let’s go back to our pipe analogy.
Do I Need to Calculate Output Impedance Myself?
Unless you’re custom-engineering your own circuits, the heavy lifting has already been done for you.
you’re able to easily find these online or in the user’s manual.
In most cases, cheaper devices, like earbuds, will have lower impedance than expensive closed-cup headphones.
However, remember that this will need to match across the entire chain of devices.
FAQ
Ideally, the output impedance of an op-amp should be 0.
That means the output voltage of the amp is unaffected by the current drawn by an external load.
