Importance of Damping Factor and Current for amps

High dumping factor, IMO, is useless as I never know will it help or not.

There are some amplifiers with 5000 - 6000 dumping factors which cannot handle difficult load.

On the contrary, high current delivery , is always, always useful and its difficult for me to imagine situation where high current delivery can hurt...

Also, when I say "high current delivery" I mean not over period of a few milliseconds as its only marketing.

Finally, high wattage does not mean that this amp is with high current delivery. Good example is bridged solid state amp e. g. Spectron stereo versus monoblock amp.

High damping is overrated. Some amps with high damping factors have no musical bass. The notes are all pinched, and thumpey, like a car audio-hell on wheels. Tubes have damping factors in the 10-15 range, and can be quite stunning. A good match is critical. jallen

Thanks to all who responded so far and provided a good range of opinion It should be interesting to hear Hooper's impressions about the Pass amps.

In general amps with high current capability will deal with difficult , low impedance loads better, but , as noted, there is no single measurement or even sets of measurements that will tell you what a speaker amp combination will sound like. I have found it amusing how often you see the sound of a speaker or amp described by itself when in fact there is no such thing as the sound of a speaker except as driven by a particular amp or of the amp except as heard through a certain speaker. As a dealer I always suggested selecting a speaker first as it is considerably easier to find an amp that will work well with it than it is to find a speaker to match an amp. In the first case you know what the needs are, in the second you have potentials that could match many different speakers in different ways.

I hope this thread is read by many members.

About a month ago I had a spirited discussion with a customer who insisted on purchasing an amp from me with a high damping factor.

The amp I recommended would have been a terrific match but the gentleman insisted differently based solely on the damping factor.

In any case, Ralph, Simon, Jallen, and Stan make good points.