Damping Factor - Interesting article

See my later post where I deleted one of my previous posts ... too much on the brain and wasn't paying enough attention. I was never implying that speaker response is not impacted by amplifier impedance. I was more questioning the "constant power" paradigm, not thinking about specific implementations that incorporate aspects of voltage and current control like the ultralinear tube configuration or mixed output feedback implementations in solid-state.

As a speaker designer I can tell you that the difference between the two amplifier paradigms is significant, whether or not output transformers are involved. The relationship between the impedance curve and the speaker’s output level differs depending on the amplifier type, such that if the speaker’s impedance curve has significant peaks and dips, it will measure and sound different with the two amplifier types.

Duke

How does damping factor apply to a zero feedback amp like an ayre .

Generally speaking, the output impedance of a solid state amplifier can be so low with respect to most speakers that it can behave as a voltage source, even if it has no feedback. This is why there are zero feedback class D amps that also behave as a voltage source.


One thing I've noticed a lot while working in high end audio is the phenomena known as 'tight bass'. I regard it as a coloration, since in real life tight bass doesn't seem to exist. The head engineer of Electro-Voice wrote an interesting article that pointed to this many years ago but I've failed to find a link to his article. Essentially though, it points out that no speaker made needs a damping factor more than about 20:1 and many need a damping factor much lower, some as low as 1:10 and you read that right (certain kinds of OB speakers).


The sound difference you hear between systems that have much greater damping factors is often related to distortion rather than FR errors, due to how the brain interprets distortion (if often favors such tonality over actual FR errors or the lack thereof).

BTW:  I really like how Ayre amps, and especially headphone amps sound.

Considering there are no speakers flat to 0.5db without equalization, let alone 0.1db, are we certain that a super high DF is going to result in the best on and off axis frequency response?

What is likely to product worse cone breakup, a high DF or a low DF?

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.

What is likely to product worse cone breakup, a high DF or a low DF?

To my understanding, cone breakup has nothing to do with the amplifier.