|   Damping factor of 30 | newbster
Apr 13, 2003 1:17 PM | | Could an amplifiers damping factor of 30 combined with a relatively low sensitivity speaker of 83db result in soft/loose bass? I read an article that mentioned that there wouldn't be much of a difference in speaker control between a damping factor of 150 and 1000. I have a set of Maggies and this is why I ask. Thanks. |
| Naahhh. Class is more important. | Mash
Apr 13, 2003 6:38 PM | | Amplifier manufacturers ( & probably all audio equipment manufacturers) would "discover" some new terrible problem every year that their latest designs just happened to fix. Obviously, if you did not trade-in or junk your old gear in favor of the latest and greatest designs that coincedently just happened to solve these most recently discovered problems, you were not really a serious audiophile but rather a Phillistine of some type. One year 'damping factor' was the bugaboo. Almost nobody worries about it now.
Maggies do not need 'control' because of their low moving mass. Benefits are to be had driving Maggies with a good tube amp, and class-A amps, both SS and tube, may be the far better bet over using a class-AB amp. My tube & SS Maggie amps operate class-A and the results are quite lifelike. Of course, one should not go power-crazy when selecting a class-A amp so as to keep one's power bill from taking a big trip north. Simply use a class-A amp which is "just big enough". |
| Naahhh. Class is more important. | newbster
Apr 14, 2003 5:09 PM | | Thanks Mash. Do you have any idea what class amplification most A/V recievers are? Particularly the Onkyo's? |
| Class-AB | Mash
Apr 14, 2003 7:27 PM | | Probably 99.999% of all receivers have class-AB amplifier sections. I do not know of ANY receivers that run class-A, but still there may be one or two, somewhere... Onkyo's are, I am pretty sure, all class-AB.
Most seperate and integrated amplifiers are also Class-AB, but there is a minority of class-A amps around. The Futterman OTL amps, and I suspect the Fournier OTL amps, run class-A traversing into class-AB. My Futterman monoblock OTL's run class-A to 30W and then they traverse into class-AB. The Musical Fidelity A2 and A220 are both class-A integrated amplifiers. I do not see how a class-AB amp can compete sonically with an otherwise-comparable class-A amp on, say, Tympani. However, a class-A amp continuously disappates its rated power irrespective of its input signal, while a class-AB will dissipate power in relation to its input signal.
Servo-subs such as the Velodyne 15" and 18" use class-D switching amps which are very efficient. Class-D amps also sound like carp because of distortion inherent to switching amps EXCEPT when these class-D amps are used with servo-subs BECAUSE the servo-feedback system corrects the switching amp distortion out of the final signal that is fed to the cone driver. |
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