Musings on Amplifier Damping Factor

[Gibsonian]

Lee that is a load of spare tools. The wire looks to be finely stranded, and tinned?

 

[NavLinear]

Lee that is a load of spare tools. The wire looks to be finely stranded, and tinned?

Yes - that is a butt ton of spare tools. Does the chair count?

The wire may be finely stranded but it's not tinned. That is some serious wire though - did you ever look up the price of some four gauge wire? Not cheap.

 

[laatsch55]

Not tinned Scott, but definately fine stranded. The only thing that has more strands than SO or SJOW is welding cable or Electric Locomotive cable..... Locomotive cable is the preferred wire for bringing motor leads out of the windings to the junction box. VERY flexible stuff. Had some of that at one time too, but it grew legs. Correction, elevator cable is pretty damn flexible too.

 

[Gibsonian]

Looks like it would transfer music to cones with very minimal effort! Whatta ya want for a 40 ft chunk? or if you'd rather sell the 50 ft pc, that'd be fine as well.

 

[laatsch55]

You talkin the #4 or #2 Scott. The #4 I think is 12 feet long. I'll measure it today. Those lenghts are considered scrap up here Scott, just cover the shipping.

 

[Gibsonian]

Whichever one you have the 50 ft chunk of is the one I would be interested in. One side of my system is around 26 ft or little longer to the sub.

 

[laatsch55]

Will do Scott...

 

[laatsch55]

Dropped the ball big time here.I'll get on this sometime this week Scott.

 

[Gibsonian]

Sounds good Lee.

 

[Gibsonian]

Lee - just saw this thread again and if you sent wire, I didn't get it!

 

[laatsch55]

I am ashamed to say no I haven't. I do still have the wire though. I'll let ya know what I wind up with Scott..

 

[laatsch55]

Scott.......um.....if you still need the wire let me know.....

 

[MarkWComer]

Back to the ball and spring analogy: I've always thought that closed back speaker systems (Acoustic Suspension) worked to assist damping due to the sealed environment at the back of the woofer cones for tighter bass control. Ported and bass-reflex systems tended to be a bit more sloppy in terms of tighter bass. For this reason I've preferred Acoustic Suspension over the other designs. I can appreciate the whole mass and inertia idea a bit more from the first post in this thread, and recognize that the sealed woofer box would present increased inertia from rarefaction and compression pressure within the cabinet. There's always a tradeoff, isn't there?

What are your thoughts on woofer suspension versus damping factor in this example?

I also insist on heavy gauge speaker cables, right now using 12g but prefer 10g to get as much signal as possible from the amp to the speakers with little impedance (the surprise to me here is those thin little spaghetti-like wires inside the amp cabinet going to the speaker outputs...).

And- noticing some differences- since the PL400 is undergoing renovations and I'm using the "Lottery Denon" as backup, the bass is a bit sloppy. The PL400 when operating with QuasiComp output still sounded better to me than the Denon, even though the Denon probably wouldn't sound too different unless you knew what to listen for.

Current speaker systems: A|D|S L-1290

 

[laatsch55]

Mark, my K's are not a difficult load impedence -wise, but it has a sealed 15" woof , and I can tell immediately if the woofs are not well controlled. It probably has a lot to do with efficiency as to how noticeable the differences are, plus the K's are just very revealing of a poor source or other input anomolies...

 

[marcok]

Mark ,
I agree with you .
- I use awg 11 cables to reduce the inductive factor at the highest frequencies -
- I prefer acoustic suspension speakers for bass response .
Some bass reflex systems are good , but the sizes are too big for normal rooms.
It's not so easy to place "two wash machines or two refrigerators ( K Horns )" in a living room .
Concernig the damping factor my experience is : higher is better .
For instance the sound of Yamaha 2010 ( damping factor = 45/50 ) is flat .
High damping factor means that power amp is an " ideal " generator .
Ciao
Marco

 

[MarkWComer]

I wonder how electrostatic systems figure in the damping factor mix. Do they have similar mass/inertia characteristics as cones?

 

[marcok]

Mark,
electrostatic speakers are simply the best system I have ever heard .
They have "no mass ", so they could be considered as an ideal transducer .
I 'm talking about Magneplanar Tympani but :
- the emission is bipolar
- the wave is flat and not spherical
- the placement is critical
- the sensitivity is very low ( 78 dB spl /mt/ W )
They are not properly electrostatic , but isodynamic .
Ciao
Marco

 

[Gibsonian]

Scott.......um.....if you still need the wire let me know.....

Hey Lee,

Long time no speak! Forgot about the wire. Yes, would still like the wire if you can part with it. Just let me know what you need for it and the shipping. Overkill on wire gage for my subs is still a goal here! Hope all is well in WY for you and the wife.

 

[laatsch55]

Yep things are great Scott. PM your address ...

 

[AngrySailor]

Found this, thought it might be helpful. You are talking about some SERIOUS cable!



edit: this chart is based on an initial damping factor of 200@8ohm.