Damping factor...I need a lesson.

[Rhoadz]

hey folks

I went over to GC to listen to monitors through hafler amps. They had a TA 1100 in the demo set up. I listened to the event 20/20s and thought that combo was pretty cool. The sales guy said he would recommend the TA 1600 w/ the 20/20's. The reasons he gave weren't about POWER but about DAMPING FACTOR.

He told me that the TA1600 had better damping than the TA1100 and that this would translate into more accurate bass frequency response.

question 1- Is this correct?

question 2- Do the TA 1100 and 1600 actualy differ in damping factor? the Hafler web site claims the same damping specs for both. 350 (to 1kHz) 150 (to 10Khz) and 18(to100kHz).

class is now in session

 

[Ethan Winer]

Rhoadz,

> the Hafler web site claims the same damping specs for both. 350 (to 1kHz) 150 (to 10Khz) and 18(to100kHz). <

This brief explanation is from my Audio Myths article (see www.ethanwiner.com/articles.html):

"Damping factor is the ability of an amplifier to absorb voltage fed back to it from the speaker. When you send a tone to a standard magnetic loudspeaker and then stop that tone, inertia causes the cone to continue vibrating. And as it vibrates a voltage is generated. The amplifier's output circuit attempts to halt that vibration by presenting a low impedance load - ideally, zero Ohms (a short circuit)."

I think values greater than 10 are probably good enough, and any modern solid state power amp will be many times better than that. However, it's important to also use heavy gauge speaker wire to maintain the amp's low output impedance.

--Ethan

 

[Rhoadz]

thanks man.

You've got some nice articles on your site. Anywho, I don't think i'm gonna sweat that spec.

mike