mga masters tanong lang po whats the difference between damping factor and high current? which one is important to drive speakers ? one time kasi a friend of mine compared the following amplifier adcom gfa 555mk2 200watts, denon avr 5802 170 watts, plinius integrated 100 watts, mark levinson 100 watts, pioneer avr 130 watts to drive a dynaudio contour floorstander. nagtaka ako yung pinaka magandang tunog yung mark levinson at plinius na lower wattage samantalang yung 200 watt na adcom or denon sounds weak and maipinis . sounds thin naman yung pioneer . sabi ng technician high current daw yung ml at plinius. anu ibig sabihin nun?
it would help if you can give the model numbers also for those different amps.....
let us lay the premise for our discussions.....we are talking high fidelity and not public address....
first, any power amp is only as good as its
power supply, the power delivery to the load depends a lot on the power supply, that is why in several occasions i have asked for the amplifiers' weight as this aspect can be a determinant of a powerful amp....
second, wattage rating alone does not tell you how powerful the amp really is, i look at the power supply transformers, the size of its rectifiers and filter capacitors, the heat-sinking used,
these are unmistakable yardsticks to amplifier power....as to your query about damping factor and high current, this partly answered above, but there is more....
to be able to deliver high current, your output stage should be capable(robust), using high current output devices, this also leads to very low output impedance and thus high damping factor...
but any amp can have high damping factor and yet low current capability, and vice-versa....
amplifiers with high amounts of negative feedback also achieves very low output impedance and therefore high damping factor....
finally, the class of operation has a lot to do also, the Mark Levinson has a very big window wherein it operates classA, the Plinius amp is also a class A amp.
all the others are classAB probably lightly biased because they may not have big heatsinks required to sustain the heavier bias.....and more likely smaller power supply as it typical of many commercial amps..