nsgarch
McStatic
RE: "Damping Factor"
Speaker diaphragms have mass, and their surrounds have stiffness. Together these form a resonant system and the mechanical cone resonance may be excited by electrical signals (eg, pulses) at audio frequencies. But a driver with a voice coil is also a current generator since it has a coil attached to cone and suspension and that coil is immersed in a magnetic field. For every motion the coil makes, it will generate a current which will be seen by any electrically attached equipment, such as an amplifier. In fact, the amp's output circuitry will be the main electrical load on the 'voice coil current generator'. If that load has low resistance, the current will be larger and the voice coil will be more strongly forced to decelerate. A high damping factor (which requires low output impedance at the amplifier output) very rapidly damps unwanted cone movements induced by the mechanical resonance of the speaker, acting as the equivalent of a 'brake' on the voice coil motion (just as a short circuit across the terminals of a rotary electrical generator will make it very hard to turn). It is generally, though not universally, thought that tighter control of voice coil motion is desirable as it is believed to contribute to better quality sound.
A high damping factor indicates that an amplifier will have greater control over the movement of the speaker cone, particularly in the bass region near the resonant frequency of the driver's mechanical resonance." Wikipedia (search 'damping factor' for more info)
Tube amps have high output circuit impedance because of the combination of power output tube and output transformer. They tend to have low damping factors.
Solid state amps are just the opposite, and tend to have higd damping factors (usually much higher than needed for good woofer control, but whatever ;-)
Solid state amps such as McIntosh, with output transformers (autoformers,) have damping factors lower than pure solid state outputs, but higher than tube outputs, and usually more than adequate for providing good bass (woofer control.)
"In loudspeaker systems, the value of the damping factor between a particular loudspeaker and amplifier, describes the ability of the amplifier to control undesirable movement of the speaker cone near the resonant frequency of the speaker system. It is usually used in the context of low frequency driver behavior, and especially so in the case of electro-dynamic drivers which use a magnetic motor to generate the forces which move the diaphragm.
Speaker diaphragms have mass, and their surrounds have stiffness. Together these form a resonant system and the mechanical cone resonance may be excited by electrical signals (eg, pulses) at audio frequencies. But a driver with a voice coil is also a current generator since it has a coil attached to cone and suspension and that coil is immersed in a magnetic field. For every motion the coil makes, it will generate a current which will be seen by any electrically attached equipment, such as an amplifier. In fact, the amp's output circuitry will be the main electrical load on the 'voice coil current generator'. If that load has low resistance, the current will be larger and the voice coil will be more strongly forced to decelerate. A high damping factor (which requires low output impedance at the amplifier output) very rapidly damps unwanted cone movements induced by the mechanical resonance of the speaker, acting as the equivalent of a 'brake' on the voice coil motion (just as a short circuit across the terminals of a rotary electrical generator will make it very hard to turn). It is generally, though not universally, thought that tighter control of voice coil motion is desirable as it is believed to contribute to better quality sound.
A high damping factor indicates that an amplifier will have greater control over the movement of the speaker cone, particularly in the bass region near the resonant frequency of the driver's mechanical resonance." Wikipedia (search 'damping factor' for more info)
Tube amps have high output circuit impedance because of the combination of power output tube and output transformer. They tend to have low damping factors.
Solid state amps are just the opposite, and tend to have higd damping factors (usually much higher than needed for good woofer control, but whatever ;-)
Solid state amps such as McIntosh, with output transformers (autoformers,) have damping factors lower than pure solid state outputs, but higher than tube outputs, and usually more than adequate for providing good bass (woofer control.)
