What amplifer are you talking about turnbrown? Some amps will have something like DF >400 at 20hz, I have seen some say DF > 300 20hz - 20khz @ 8Ohm. Use the Excel spreadsheet from Benchmark and input the numbers from your speakers. What Benchmark was showing is speakers that range from 2.6 Ohm to 18 Ohm DF of >200 was .1dB difference. Some like Pass use a low DF which produces higher dB in the Bass depending on speakers used.
Damping Factor - Interesting article
Benchmark Media published interesting article on Damping Factor. I already knew that it does not make much difference for the damping of the membrane, but low output impedance is necessary to drive changing impedance ot the speaker (ideal voltage source). According to this article DF=100 produces about 0.5dB variations typically, while DF=200 reduces it to 0.1dB. DF above 200 is inaudible.
https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/audio-myth-damping-factor-isnt-much-of-a-factor?omnisendAttributionID=email_campaign_5eda3b728a48f72deaf34bf2&omnisendContactID=5cf9266b15b61cc5a2a4dee7&utm_campaign=campaign%3A+AUDIO+MYTH+-+%22DAMPING+FACTOR+ISN%27T+MUCH+OF+A+FACTOR%22+%285eda3b728a48f72deaf34bf2%29&utm_medium=email&utm_source=omnisend
https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/audio-myth-damping-factor-isnt-much-of-a-factor?omnisendAttributionID=email_campaign_5eda3b728a48f72deaf34bf2&omnisendContactID=5cf9266b15b61cc5a2a4dee7&utm_campaign=campaign%3A+AUDIO+MYTH+-+%22DAMPING+FACTOR+ISN%27T+MUCH+OF+A+FACTOR%22+%285eda3b728a48f72deaf34bf2%29&utm_medium=email&utm_source=omnisend
- ...
- 70 posts total
djones512,195 posts06-06-2020 8:41am"What amplifer are you talking about turnbrown?...." Marantz Integated Amps are a good example of DF specs with no load or frequency specified. Hegel, who prides themselves on very high DFs, list no load or frequency in their specifications. |
In the Benchmark paper it says most amplifier specs assume 8 Ohm whether that's true for Hegel and marantz I have no idea. What's interesting to me about the article is they are saying low DF of 10 or high as 10,000 is not an issue damping of driver motion but a low DF can affect the sound of speakers because of variations in impedance of the speaker. I notice the Hegel integrateds show a DF of 4000, I can't imagine a speaker bad enough to for the DF to matter at 4000. |
General observation: much of the discussion above focuses on high DFs of 20, 200 or 2000. I surmise that most amps that fall into those DF categories are solid state amps that are constant (or near constant) voltage sources. I was hoping Atmosphere (Ralph) would have chimed in because he manufacturers very fine tube amps that probably have output impedances in the single digits. Anyone have any thoughts about the db spread on tube amps, even those that use NF?? BIF |
- 70 posts total