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Damping Factor

I firmly believe a quoted Damping Factor on Audio Power Amplifier outputs of 10, or possibly as low as 5 is perfectly adequate to ensure perfectly good quality sound reproduction from the majority of loudspeaker systems.
Can anyone enlightem me why particular emphasis and value is given to damping factors of 1000 or more for certain Solid State Amplifiers other than advertising value. A high Damping Factor is related to amplifier output impedance, and comes automatically with amplifiers having heavy feedback, not necessarily good ones.
poulkirk313e

Showing 3 responses by 70242241e18c

70242241e18c
81 posts
 
Damping factor is the ratio of the load impedance to the amplifier's output impedance. But you also have to figure in the resistance of the speaker cable to get your "real world" damping factor. IMO, 20 or better is my minimum goal, but 50 or better is my target.

BTW, solid state amps don't use that much negative feedback anymore. At least those that are designed by competent engineers who've paid attention over the past 20 years or so.
70242241e18c
81 posts
 
Bear: The MacroTech damping factor is 1,000.
70242241e18c
81 posts
 
Noquarter: You're right about the MacroReference. I remembered that one was way up there, but since the Web, I don't keep as many spec sheets laying around any more.

I agree that high damping is a must wherever the moving mass--inertia--of the speaker cone is high. I find a lot of people are surprised, though, that you really have to figure the speaker wire in to get a complete picture of the damping, and that's usually going to overwhelm whatever the amp's damping spec is, so that it's almost negligible if one amp is 300 and the other is 5,000.
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