The trouble with buzzwords like "slam factor" is that they invariably tend to mean somewhat different things to different people. Oh the joy of subjective audio where you have large watts and small watts and where the more murky the explanation the better. One man's slam is another man's unnatural exaggerated bass. Go figure! They all sound the same. They all sound different. Take your pick. It's a free country. Has anyone ever heard the sound of an amp without speakers? Maybe everyone should consider the two as inseparable. Maybe then one would say: "amp a when driving my speakers at exactly matched level, in the same room, playing the same source material sounds, to my ear at least, as producing more natural or more accurate bass than amp b". Good day.
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.