damping factor?

[Max_Power 10+ year member]

who wants to explain it to me?

.. with reguards to this amp

http://www.woofersetc.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=6097

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[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

The simple answer is that you can essentially ignore it when dealing with solid state amps.

The rated damping factor is simply the ratio of load impedance (the speaker) to source impedance (the output impedance of the amplifier). If this ratio drops too low, then it can have an effect on the low frequency response of the driver. But as I mentioned before, just about any solid state car audio amplifier is going to have adequate enough damping as to not audibly affect the frequency response of the driver.

Also, those "rated" damping factors are a bit misleading because they don't take into consideration all necessary resistances into the source impedance portion of the calculation.

Lastly, damping factor is not a "higher is better" specification. Once the damping is adequate enough as to not audibly affect the frequency response, that's it......any higher damping factor will yield zero audible benefit. This is generally considered to be around 20.

 

[Max_Power 10+ year member]

The simple answer is that you can essentially ignore it when dealing with solid state amps.
The rated damping factor is simply the ratio of load impedance (the speaker) to source impedance (the output impedance of the amplifier). If this ratio drops too low, then it can have an effect on the low frequency response of the driver. But as I mentioned before, just about any solid state car audio amplifier is going to have adequate enough damping as to not audibly affect the frequency response of the driver.

Also, those "rated" damping factors are a bit misleading because they don't take into consideration all necessary resistances into the source impedance portion of the calculation.

Lastly, damping factor is not a "higher is better" specification. Once the damping is adequate enough as to not audibly affect the frequency response, that's it......any higher damping factor will yield zero audible benefit. This is generally considered to be around 20.

WOW, thanks! that was a very thorough explanation and I apprecieate it!