It's important enough to take into consideration along with everything else when trying to achieve a particular sound.
Showing 5 responses by mapman
Another way to say it is it is practically most significant in distinguishing amps when damping factor is low as in <50 or so as is often but not limited to the case of higher output impedance tube amps. Speakers that are tube amp friendly will tend to sound more relaxed and perhaps more natural when amp damping is lower or correspondingly output impedance higher. Some SS amps designed to sound more like tube amps likely also have lower damping factor. Two I have owned that attest to that are Carver M4.0t and TAD Hibachi both of which are SS designs made to sound more like a tube amp. |
With most of the speakers in my house, including the OHMs and Dynaudios which are not inherently tube amp friendly speakers, moving from the lower Damping higher output impedance amps I mentioned to others with damping much grater than 50 produced perhaps the biggest sonic benefits of any change I recall in recent years. Those same amps played very nice with my more tube amp friendly Triangle Titus XS speakers for which I would like to find a nice small easy to maintain tube amp. I use the Triangles also with my highly damped Bel Canto ref1000m Class D amps and the sound is quite good still in many ways (crystal clear especially at lower volumes) though somewhat sterile at higher volumes in comparison to the others that are a better match to that amp in regards to impedance and damping. So I have found that damping/output impedance matters VERY VERY MUCH, perhaps as much or more than many other also important things. Understanding this has been a key for me to getting to a good place faster with fewer stumbles along the way. Beats playing with fuse directions by a light year IMHE of course that is a much easier thing to do right being there are only two choices, more like answering a true false question that has no right answer other than what you think and/or hear. |
Atmasphere OHM generally indicates 6 OHM nominal impedance for their Walsh line speakers. I have seen measurements and impedance curves on some models that show fairly high impedance >8 ohms over extended ranges with the greatest dip down to almost 4 ohm in the bass region possibly associated with the port. Users over the years have indicated best results with higher damping amp ratings and I would agree. How high is needed is debatable but I always find the higher the better even if Justas an insurance policy and nothing concrete theoretically to support the need. If I had to rate them based on what I know and what others report I would say they are moderately tube amp friendly, probably more so than many speakers in their class. The Dynaudios most likely have lower impedances and are also generally known to not be very tube amp friendly and I would agree. In fact even with SS amps I find results can vary widely with Dynaudios whereas its very hard to find any good quality amp that sounds bad with the OHMs. Remember also that the OHMs operate totally different than most dynamic speakers ie based on Lincoln Walsh’s transmission line principles. I suspect this may make them very unique in regards to impedance considerations but do not know enough about it technically to say for sure. I have two OHM models, larger ones with 12" main drivers and smaller with 8". The higher damping in the amps seem to make more difference with the larger models to me than the smaller although I'd say there are audible differences in general with both.. |
I thought this was an interesting article relevant to the discussion and also clearly in the "it does not matter much" camp. http://ohmspeaker.com/news/amplifier-damping-another-wet-blanket/ |