power amp dampening factor

[Nubus]

Originally Posted by dagosto

Ahh yes. Damping is how much voltage that gets eaten up on the output. You could also use a product like a power soak to increase damping. This lets you overdrive the amp but play nice and quiet for the neighbors.

I can see calling the voltage eaten by a power soak (actually it is dissapated into other energy forms I believe so it is kinda like eating) but that really isn't the definition of damping factor as it relates to an amp. Damping is in fact the amps ability to control the speaker like Whoopysnorp wrote above. And come to think of it the power soak isn't damping, it is attenuating.

Since damping can be defined as physically reducing vibration I think it is a decent term to toss around, but I seem to see it used in a confused manner.

[dagosto]

Originally Posted by Nubus

I can see calling the voltage eaten by a power soak (actually it is dissapated into other energy forms I believe so it is kinda like eating) but that really isn't the definition of damping factor as it relates to an amp. Damping is in fact the amps ability to control the speaker like Whoopysnorp wrote above. And come to think of it the power soak isn't damping, it is attenuating.

Since damping can be defined as physically reducing vibration I think it is a decent term to toss around, but I seem to see it used in a confused manner.

Actually yes, that was a mistake. A 16 ohm load is a tighter sound than an 8 ohm load because it has increased damping.

[Nubus]

Originally Posted by dagosto

Actually yes, that was a mistake. A 16 ohm load is a tighter sound than an 8 ohm load because it has increased damping.

I think I remember talking to Britton about this and he had used the analogy :think of a turnstile, it only allows so much to go through it at once, that is the current so a bigger current ie a lower impedance load would be like opening the flood gates. I can see the sound being described as flabby then. i had a hard time wrapping my head around why a 16 ohm load would sound tighter than 8 until i put it into practice though. lately the way I prefer to run my bass guitar amp is actually into just the 2x10 cause It does sound tighter to me than with the 2x10 and 1x15 chained together.