Damping factor is important, to a point, and this point is highly dependent on the load (speaker system) driven and other factors.
The above (post 43) article (advertisement, written and published by a manufacturer selling cables and amplifiers, hardly objective) is not untrue, but uses a specific speaker system for the arguments and specific speaker cables, which takes it far from a universal global truth. That said, I agree with the article even though I would question some of the specifics and want more variation in the devices tested.
Floyd Toole’s article on the subject is also worth reading, as is Roger Russel’s
Speaker Wire (which links to the Floyd Toole article). Objectivity requires reading scientifically derived materials from multiple sources and understanding the different factors in each.
If you are driving speakers, especially large drivers (woofers, subwoofers), directly connected from the amplifier to the speaker driver, it is more important and significant than if you are driving a speaker system through a crossover network for example. Amplifier topology/design also plays a part as some designs of direct-coupled amplifiers, transformer outputs, autoformer outputs, et al vary in the response to varying loads and to the back-feed from moving cones and collapsing flux lines. Your crossovers and cables certainly create enough resistance alone to make damping factors in the hundreds insignificantly different from DFs in the thousands. More on that I’m sure. If an amplifier had a way to perfectly control woofer motion by a super-high damping factor you can duplicate it by shorting a wire across the speaker terminals and press on the woofer cone, the damping should only allow the cone to return to the neutral position very slowly. This is one of the things that damping-factor zealots are selling. Note that there is almost no difference between this and doing the same experiment with no wires shorted across your speaker system’s terminals, …
Pro-audio components often have white papers, complete specs. Amplifiers for example will have charts and graphs that tell you what its power output at frequency is, phase shift, distortion, power vs load impedance. Pro-audio speakers often have similar graphs showing many things such as off-axis response, power compression, phase vs frequency and also impedance curves/graphs. This is necessary because the installer/integrator is selling the performance of an installed system and needs the engineering information to create that performance in its final environment. Most consumer-level speakers give you little to nothing. I can use examples but to avoid stepping on toes, look at speaker data from some manufacturers out there and note that the spec is “Frequency Response: 39Hz-40kHz” or something similar. At what tolerance, +/- 4dB? +/-10dB? It makes a difference. Is this in room, if so what is the anechoic response? Where does it deviate? What is the phase shift and where? 8 Ohms nominal means little without an impedance graph, and a recommended amplifier power range is pure marketing, … lets see a graph with power compression. Also sensitivity, … that’s at 1000Hz 1W, how much power is lost at 50Hz 100W? At the crossover point where lots of power can be lost? I could ramble forever on how (especially speaker and cable) manufacturers prey on those who read specs, but don’t really understand how they apply to their system or actual music as heard by a human in a normal room.
When you get into more powerful amplifiers, and especially higher quality amplifiers, many things change other than current, power, and damping factor, and often that is what you hear. Also, just hearing a “difference” doesn’t mean more accurate, what is known as “tube bloom” for example might be heard as more or better bass, but it is a deviation from accurate. Similarly some speaker cables with higher capacitance can cause (especially some amplifier designs) overshoot and ring in the HF range, people can hear that as more clarity or more detail, where it’s actually distortion. Tubes are famous for their ability to create pleasant distortion, and loved by many. Amplifiers, especially vintage amplifiers have widely varying levels of deviation from accurate, an example being the widely accepted marantz “house sound” that was designed in or Bob Carver’s famous tube-voice SS amplifier series.
My point regarding this paragraph is that it doesn’t matter as much what others prefer, you can swap amps around until you hear what YOU like to hear whether it’s objectively more accurate or not, and this is the best way to listen to your music. You will not nor should not get agreement from a group as large as this on what will sound the best.
I’ve said before that audio is science, but music is art. If you have a bronze statue, have it lighted from above, or lighted from below, or not lighted at all, it is the same statue but takes on a different aesthetic. All are the same statue but you like to see and display the details in your own way and it’s your statue. Unless you’re building a system for a client, build what sounds best to you.
