power amp dampening factor

[DreamwaveMusic]

what does the dampening factor mean in regards to power amplifiers?

[Whoopysnorp]

Damping factor refers to the amp's ability to pull the speaker back in as well as push it out. Tube power amps have a pretty low damping factor, which means they're great at pushing the speaker out but not so good at pulling it back in. Solid state power amps are better at pulling the speakers back in. This is why you generally get less flubby sound when using sealed cabinets with tube power amps rather than ported cabs, because the speaker being pushed out creates a vaccuum in the sealed cab that automatically pulls the speaker back in.

[Nubus]

Yeah, damping, not dampening. Dampening factor would be how wet it could get, right?

[Nubus]

NO! the other way around.
edit - correct me if I'm wrong!

[Whoopysnorp]

Yeah, damping factor is the term. But on days when it's rainy I'm gonna start saying 'man, the dampening factor is high today'.

[lukedavo]

Yeah, you are correct. I wouldn't feel bad about the confusion, a search on google provides equal results with both words. Damping factor is the correct term.

glayvin

[dagosto]

Originally Posted by lukedavo

Yeah, you are correct. I wouldn't feel bad about the confusion, a search on google provides equal results with both words. Damping factor is the correct term.

glayvin

This picture confuses me. It looks as though this is a representation of a signal that is decaying and would suggest that dampening is how fast a speaker will stop oscillating after hit with a signal. This differs from what was stated earlier about dampening being the ability of a speaker to be pulled back past the null point.

edit: ???

[lukedavo]

hahahahha to be honest with you that was the first image that came up in an image search. Now I'm confused though, is damping factor and dampening factor really the same thing?

[smopo24]

well wikipedia comes to the rescue once again! here is their definiton of damping:

The term damping factor can also refer to the ratio between a source and load impedance.

Damping is any effect, either deliberately engendered or inherent to a system, that tends to reduce the amplitude of oscillations. The term "dampening" is sometimes incorrectly used instead of "damping"; "dampening" simply means to get something wet by applying water.

In applied mathematics, damping is mathematically modelled as a force with magnitude proportional to that of the velocity of the object but opposite in direction to it. Thus, for a simple mechanical damper, the force F is related to the velocity v by

\bold{F} = -B \bold{v}

where B is the damper constant.

This relationship is perfectly analogous to electrical resistance. See Ohm's law.

In playing stringed instruments such as guitar or violin, damping is the quieting or abrupt silencing of the strings after they have been sounded, by pressing with the edge of the palm, or other parts of the hand such as the fingers on one or more strings near the bridge of the instrument. The strings themselves can be modelled as a continuum of infinitesimally small mass-spring-damper systems where the damping constant is much smaller than the resonant frequency, creating damped oscillations (see below). See also Vibrating string.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damping

[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.