Can an amp overdamp a speaker?


Can a speaker be overdamped with an amp that has a high damping factor? Or is a higher damping factor always a good thing?
The speakers specifically are Totem Mani-2. One amp I'm considering is the Belles 350A reference with a damping factor of over 2000.
rubber

Showing 1 response by kirkus

In the purely hypothetical sense, no. Damping factor is like distortion . . . in absolute terms, there are specs that are better and there are specs that are worse . . . in the case of damping factor, higher is better, and in the case of distortion, lower is better.

But they are both woefully inadequate in terms of measuring an amplifier's sound quality, and completely worthless as published specifications. There are both great-sounding and terrible-sounding amps with high damping factors and with low damping factors.