Importance of dampening factor

[murph 10+ year member]

Sorry for the double thread but I spelled it wrong by accident. Anyways what is its purpose and would it affect the force and reproduction of sound on bigger subwoofers like 15's

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[itsblown 10+ year member]

the answer is always yes

 

[pickup1 5,000+ posts]

The higher the #,the better control of the speaker..

 

[murph 10+ year member]

is there a big difference between like say 150 and 400

 

[whitedragon551 5,000+ posts]

I wouldnt pay any attention to it. 95% of companies out there can inflate their THD, dampening factor, SN Ratio based on how they test. Since no company tests the same its very hard to compare amps against each other. You never know if they were tested under the same scenarios to get their specs.

 

[murph 10+ year member]

generally would you say the dampening factor on old school amps is most likely higher then they are rated?

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

geek stuff III

Good writeup on the subject here ^^^

http://www.zedaudiocorp.com/pdfs/ZedManual-2011.pdf

Just control F to find the section where Stephen does the math to prove that this is generally over-rated and fudged by marketing departments.

 

[cleansoundzz 10+ year member]

geek stuff IIIGood writeup on the subject here ^^^

http://www.zedaudiocorp.com/pdfs/ZedManual-2011.pdf

Just control F to find the section where Stephen does the math to prove that this is generally over-rated and fudged by marketing departments.

Good to see you on this forum hispls. You are a good dude.

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

Just control F to find the section where Stephen does the math to prove that this is generally over-rated and fudged by marketing departments.

So true.

For the OP: Damping factor is nothing more than a meaningless marketing tool that was used back in the "transistor versus tube amplifier" days. It's kind of sad that the car audio companies have managed to milk this meaningless spec over the years by having people think that higher is better when purchasing car audio amplifiers.

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

dampening factor is important

but it's not the key to accurate reproduction alone..

I will say though the higher your bl/inductance the higher the df needs to be for a given amount of control..

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

dampening factor is importantbut it's not the key to accurate reproduction alone..

I will say though the higher your bl/inductance the higher the df needs to be for a given amount of control..

Unfortunately, when given for 12 volt amplifiers, it used to be measured at the wrong spot, like the circuit board. It usually dropped significantly on the amplifier's speaker connections and again when measured at the speaker itself.

If one truly wants cone control, the best way to achieve it is using a servo drive which is neither cheap nor easy to implement.