Damping Factor

@larryi + 2

The Damping Factor Debate See Below:

http://www.lansingheritage.org/html/jbl/reference/technical/damping-factor.htm

One of the problems with determining how important is a high damping factor is the "all other things being equal" problem.  You never can achieve all other things being equal, so it is hard to say if any difference is attributable to damping factor.  Also, there are some systems where low damping factor does indeed alter the sound, but, it can be for the better.

How high damping factor is achieved matters a lot to me.  Throw in a lot of negative feedback and you can get spectacularly low source impedance (high damping factor) but those designs tend to sound dead, or "sterile" to my ears.  I recall when Halcro amps came on the market and audio magazines went nuts raving about them.  They measured spectacularly--ultra low distortion, utlra high damping factor, etc. and I did not like them on any of the speakers I heard them playing.  A friend of mine said that he had tears in his eyes when he first heard them play because of the nostalgia it provoked--it reminded his so much of the first time he heard a Phase Linear 700 amp (i.e., he thought it sounded awful too).

The last time I shopped for speakers, I visited a dealer to audition (if my memory serves me) a pair of Magico S5's.  The salesman initially drive them with a very powerful, very high damping factor solid state amp and it seemed like the S5's it didn't have much bass.  When the "high end" listening room became available, he powered the S5's with Audio Research tube power amps and the bass was dramatically more prevalent and musical.

It's kind of like a wet.....well, you ,know. Someday you'll understand.