I think the damping factor issue is directly related to the speaker in question, which may very likely have a very low moving mass and very high magnetic field and very short excursion length(such as my speakers), and thus have a very significant amount of its own internal damping ability.
In cases such as this, high numerical "damping factors" may actually inhibit transient response, and may not be an advantage at all.
As long as the relationship between the amp's output impedance and the speaker's relative impedance at any given frequency(damping factor) remains enough to control the speaker(>5), then it is sufficient in that circumstance. It is when the speakers have poor internal damping characteristics(ie high moving mass/low magnetic field strength/very long excursion length) where problems are more likely to be "fixed" by high electrical damping factor numbers.
Regarding high power being "better" than low power, we all know I'm in the "low power" camp. I think(and I'm pretty sure Sean agrees) that you are much better off to have higher efficiency speakers than to try to overcome low efficiency speakers with brute force, because of the exponential curve of power needed to add a few db to the output.
Also, it has been my experience that high power amps seem to be less "delicate" in nuances and details, due to the beefy construction needed to handle all that power. And in addition, to have power like that, you simply have to go out of Class A operation, which I don't like to do.
And, when you have low efficiency speakers, you have a higher "low-level detail threshold" because it simply takes more power to make the speaker move at all, so that some very low level stuff never even makes it out of the speakers, unless you have it turned up alot.
If the speakers are high efficiency, you can still get pretty loud SPL, with great low level detail, with very low power amps. I do realize that this normally sacrifices some of the very low bass. I think it is not a bad trade-off.
In cases such as this, high numerical "damping factors" may actually inhibit transient response, and may not be an advantage at all.
As long as the relationship between the amp's output impedance and the speaker's relative impedance at any given frequency(damping factor) remains enough to control the speaker(>5), then it is sufficient in that circumstance. It is when the speakers have poor internal damping characteristics(ie high moving mass/low magnetic field strength/very long excursion length) where problems are more likely to be "fixed" by high electrical damping factor numbers.
Regarding high power being "better" than low power, we all know I'm in the "low power" camp. I think(and I'm pretty sure Sean agrees) that you are much better off to have higher efficiency speakers than to try to overcome low efficiency speakers with brute force, because of the exponential curve of power needed to add a few db to the output.
Also, it has been my experience that high power amps seem to be less "delicate" in nuances and details, due to the beefy construction needed to handle all that power. And in addition, to have power like that, you simply have to go out of Class A operation, which I don't like to do.
And, when you have low efficiency speakers, you have a higher "low-level detail threshold" because it simply takes more power to make the speaker move at all, so that some very low level stuff never even makes it out of the speakers, unless you have it turned up alot.
If the speakers are high efficiency, you can still get pretty loud SPL, with great low level detail, with very low power amps. I do realize that this normally sacrifices some of the very low bass. I think it is not a bad trade-off.