because it's my job to know these things. I noticed that sound quality was lacking so I ran it through my Audio Precision. I can see where the amp maxes on the distortion graphs. we're looking at about 3.8mW of clean power. my iPod Touch makes about 4.1mW. Not a huge difference, but enough to notice on the graphs. If the amp weren't being driven to it's max then the distortion curve wouldn't shoot up to 10% THD at 4mW.
This is exactly what we needed to know. Thanks! Though this does really suck.
I do have a question on the lower impedence headphones. Being lower impedence (less resistance) wouldn't that cause the amp to distort earlier due to the greater load?