Damping Factor

The Crown Macro Tech series has a DF of about 30,000.

Most tube amps can't get a low Df because of the output transformer being inherently "stuck" at one impedance. There are many tube amps with much more feedback than some solid state designs, but the SS designs I am thinking of still have a higher DF because the devices are an order of magnitude lower in impedance to start with (before feedback).

Depending upon things like the driver's Q and the "alignment" in the box (B3, C4, etc...) the effect of DF can be heard at frequencies where the driver may be operating in an area where it's damping (due to the in box alignment) may be significantly different than the damping *above* that point. For example, the driver at 150 hz. might act like it has a Qts of .7, whereas at the F3 point it may act like a Qts of 1.0 (or higher). (actually the alignment would be said to have the Qts of 1.0 in that case)

So, you might be able to hear a qualitative difference in the "fatness" or "heaviness", or the other way around,"thinness" or 'lean-ness" of the bass depending upon the DF of the amp used.

Of course, if the designer used a zero feedback amp in the design - and thought it sounded "right" putting on an amp with a 30k DF might very well make it sound a bit too thin
and lean...On the other hand, if the designer used a very high DF amp in the design, then with a low DF amp it might sound a bit bloated and fatter than desired...

Might.

_-_-bear

Bear: The MacroTech damping factor is 1,000.

Actually, it was the Macro Reference that had 30,000. In my opinion, damping factor means more, with the more acoustic watts that are desired from the low frequency driver. If you have a very powerful woofer (or perhaps several driven from one amp) in a concert sound reinforcement situation, you want all the damping factor and current reserve you can get.

For home hi-fi, you generally have specialized woofers with a long linear excursion designed around less absolute peak dB output in the first place, so they are inherently more forgiving, especially at the lower ouput levels that occur in the home.

Also, with smaller midwoofers (like those in every "box speaker"), their moving mass is so much lighter than larger woofers, that they can get by with less damping control from the amplifier.

A manufacturer called Meyer Sound Labs has a new active studio monitor speaker that employs the familiar servo feedback circuit on its woofer (but uses a microphone on a bar mounted in front of the woofer, rather than the consumer hi-fi method of using an accelerometer on the woofer's cone). They claim that this circuit allows faster decay time than a "typical electrostatic". That doesn't surprise me much, since larger esl panels are terrible at stopping, once they get started (every MLSSA plot that I've ever seen, in Stereophile and elsewhere, fully bears this out).

Noquarter: You're right about the MacroReference. I remembered that one was way up there, but since the Web, I don't keep as many spec sheets laying around any more.

I agree that high damping is a must wherever the moving mass--inertia--of the speaker cone is high. I find a lot of people are surprised, though, that you really have to figure the speaker wire in to get a complete picture of the damping, and that's usually going to overwhelm whatever the amp's damping spec is, so that it's almost negligible if one amp is 300 and the other is 5,000.

Crown Macrotech i amplifier has 5000 damping factor @8ohm. It has extra damping factor compare with other amplifires. Is 5000 DF harmful for any 4ohm load driver??