Amp damping factor?

"An amp doesn't have a damping factor"

Pauly - You'll often find DF in amps' specifications. "Having" DF simply means amp has that many times lower output impedance (at given frequency) than assumed 8 ohm speaker. DF is a measure of output impedance - hence amp "has" DF.

"What you are looking for is an amp with a low output impedance" - not likely to find in specifications, look for higher Damping Factor instead.

Kijanki – an amplifier that has a DF rating is probably something I'll pass on. When specs are written by the marketing department, one never knows just how creative they’ve been.

Regards
Paul

Pauly - I agree. Specifications are very flexible and often misleading. Amplifier (and any other) design is a series of compromises and when you see an amp with exceptionally high DF and extremely low THD something else has to give - the sound.

Joekapahulu - I wouldn't pay too much attention to DF. For instance Atmasphere MA-1 amps have DF<1 (tube amp without output transformer) but sound great according to 6Moons review ("gigantic imaging, excellent dynamics, frequency extension and potent music-making").

An amp doesn't have a damping factor. Damping factor is the ratio of the rated impedance of the loudspeaker to the source impedance.

The convention is to report Damping Factor into an 8 ohm load - so for pratical purposes one might say that power amps do indeed have a Damping Factor.

It can be over rated as the woofer drive motor and mechanical as well as acoustic suspension can play a much bigger role. A high damping factor amp is not going to fix a badly designed speaker with low cost drivers with cheap (small) motor - that will be putting lipstick on a pig.

1st, DF is just a spec, If all manu. measure the same, you should be able to compare. Not that this would make it mean any more or less!

Also, propagation delay is as good a reason as any why certain bi-amp combinations don't work out. 1milisecond is roughly 14" at the speed of sound and will result in phase/time smear effects. Even I can hear that! Pair a fast amp with a slow amp and you could quite possibly get to that level.