For almost every speaker or headphone you can buy, you'll find a specification for impedance measured in ohms (symbolized as Ω). Rarely do the packaging and included product manuals explain what impedance means or why it matters to you.

Impedance is like great rock and roll. Understanding it all is complicated, but you don't have to understand it all to "get it."

When talking about things like watts, voltage, and power, many audio writers use the analogy of water flowing through a pipe. This is an analogy that people can imagine and relate to.

Think of the speaker as a pipe. The audio signal, your music, acts as the water flowing through the pipe. The larger the pipe, the easier it is for water to flow through it. Larger pipes can also handle more volume of flowing water. A speaker with a lower impedance is like a larger pipe because it allows more electrical signal to pass through it and allows it to flow more easily.