I witnessed a similar effect when trying out a Classe CA100. The dealer said its damping factor is about 30 and my McIntosh MC7100 is 100. This is not the only difference but the Mc definately has more controlled slam than the Ca100 (the rest of the system was the same for both: Mc C712, Paradigm Ref 100.2, MIT). I have been trying to find a technical definition of damping factor but to no avail. Does anyone know how it is calculated? Arthur
amplifier's "slam-factor"
I wonder if anyone can explain me why there are differences in the so called "slam-factor" between different amplifiers (with comparable power ratings). It is well known that for example Krell amplifiers have a high slam-factor, while Mark Levinson amplifiers are quite tame in comparison, even the most powerful ones (> 300 watts per channel). Spectral amplifiers are very fast regarding signal amplification and transmission, but I find them not very "powerful" sounding (high slam-factor), assuming speed is one of the factors which determine whether an amplifier has a high slam-factor or not.