Damping Factor


I firmly believe a quoted Damping Factor on Audio Power Amplifier outputs of 10, or possibly as low as 5 is perfectly adequate to ensure perfectly good quality sound reproduction from the majority of loudspeaker systems.
Can anyone enlightem me why particular emphasis and value is given to damping factors of 1000 or more for certain Solid State Amplifiers other than advertising value. A high Damping Factor is related to amplifier output impedance, and comes automatically with amplifiers having heavy feedback, not necessarily good ones.
poulkirk313e

Showing 1 response by poulkirk313e

Damping Factor is directly related to Amplifier Output Impedance. It is not possible to make an acceptable Solid State Amplifier without providing negative feedback. It is however possible to make a reasonably good Valve or Tube Amplifier without negative feedback, or "Zero Feedback". This amplifier, if correctly loaded, meaning the output transformer ratio is such that all available power is transferred to the speaker load will have a damping factor of 1. Adding negative feedback will lower the output impedance and increase the damping factor, it will also in most cases lower the distortion, but it will not increase the output power. Valve or Tube Amplifiers usually have only moderate amounts of negative feedback, resulting in a damping factor around 10. Solid State Amps on the other hand usually have massive amounts of negative feedback in order for them to work at all, giving a high damping factor.
Large amounts of negative feedback generally lower distortion at mid frequencies and tends to "Hide" crossover artifacts. In other words, it makes a fairly ordinary amplifier "Spec-Up Well" on test instruments, but unfortunately does not necessarily make an amplifier sound good driving real speakers playing real music. A high Damping Factor is something you get for free from most solid state amplifiers, not necessarily something you need.
A Damping factor of around 10 is sufficient.