Headphones

Because they were designed at a time when amps had high OI (output impedance) and Tube amps were more common.

Impedence and sensitivity are both important for power requirements for a headphone. While the 6X0 series has high impedance it also has high sensitivity making them not that hard to drive.

There are lots of calculators online that show you the actual amount of power required. I like the headphonesty one because it shows a list of devices that can drive the given headphone (though the list is a bit outdated) and you can link to specific input settings like this.

TL;DR you can literally drive the 6X0 line using an Apple dongle of most (though not all) modern smartphones. Basically any desktop amp unless it is strangely underpowered should run them fine.

As a side note if they currently get loud enough for you on whatever device you're currently using you don't need an amp unless you're trying to remove background noise (say from a PC headphone jack) or add features (like a nice volume knob, more inputs / outputs, etc). An amp won't change the sound in 99% of cases unless you get something specialized like a tube amp or something specifically designed to 'color' the sound.

Headphone impedance is, by itself, not a measure of amplifier requirements. There's a ton of misinformation out there about it, so it's easy to get confused. Any decent headphone amp will do fine.

I find the efficiency of the hd600 to be high enough to be powered off a macbook pro or phone, despite the high 300ohm impedance. can't be said for the hd650, that requires decent amplification for it to wake up.

hd600 have quite a high sensitivity so are actually very easy to power

I have hd660s2. Drives fairly easy of M1 Mac air. But since I had an ibasso Dc03 pro, I use it to drive.

If you getting an amp/dac, you can try Tempotec -Sonata BHD Pro (has enough power) or iBasso dc04pro. Either would be more than enough to take care of any noise floor (if your source laptop/phone has) and run your cans easily.

But you can buy the S2 cans without any of these things too.

Audio engineers use high impedance as a tool to tune the drivers. Yes you will need an amplifier to proper sound. Underpowered it won't impress you like most on this sub cry they aren't impressed by hd6 series but still suggest it doesn't require an amp.

I've plugged the HD600 directly into my phone and into a MacBook Pro. They worked just fine that way.

Don’t worry about impedance. I have the HD 6XX and 660s and there’s no sound quality difference running off my iPhone vs an amp