system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does headphone impedance work? Are harder to drive headphones objectively better?

A lot of premium headphones require a lot of amplification to be heard, and I don't get why that's the case when many other headphones sound great even though they have low impedance and can be driven by something like a phone.
gpt
High impedance headphones were designed for recording studios where a bunch of people would have their headphones plugged into one source.  The headphones were designed with high impedance so it wouldn't overload the amplifiers.  Because they were designed for recording studios they were by nature higher quality.  Audiophiles started using them for home use because they were higher quality.  There really isn't any reason why low impedance headphones can't match the quality of a high impedance headphone.