What is meant by damping factor and why is it important

[Wombat]

True, some SET amp effect, but not very much in reality. The SET amp behavior is much more complex, and dynamic. These things make them fun to listen too. It is true that if you listen to he SET then say a decent solid state amp, you will notice difference, but personal preference will decide which you prefer, often folks find the SET amplifier more dynamic.

SET amps and output transformers have come a long way from your grand dads tube radio receiver (which many of them actually sound quite nice) while retaining the essential elements of the SET such as ultra low distortion at low power levels (where your music spends most of its time) and dynamics due to the tube/transformer/speaker interaction and what I call the chorus effect sound, kind of like reverb but not reverb.

Good SETs produce very few harmonics higher than the fourth, and that reduce IM quite a bit, but they make up for that by producing a whole bunch of more close in tones so in some ways its a wash.

Also the group delays contribute in some SETs to a "fat" sound which can be quite pleasing. And these units can be made with no feedback, where only some solid state amps can do that, and they have to separate the audio signal in to positive and negative halves in order to do that, which is never really ultimate high fi, more hi fi than a SET, yes, but not ultimate.

I don't think output transformer design has progressed much since the tube era.. More to the point, affluence has allowed many users to afford higher quality past designs. The hysteresis in OPs is always going to add distortion without feedback.

As you say, it is preference.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Also, the SET guys are also not believers in high damping factor.

they are not able to! No way to get it on a SET

 

[tomelex]

Noticeable that you are listening to the amp and not through it. I think I am only interested in listening through a hi-fi system.
I think that a good hi-fi system can actually let you do this.

I think I know what you are saying, and yes it is true, a SET is a colored sound as far as measurements go and interaction with speaker impedance vs frequency. However, the harmonic spray can be acoustically be very pleasing for some.

 

[tomelex]

I don't think output transformer design has progressed much since the tube era.. More to the point, affluence has allowed many users to afford higher quality past designs. The hysteresis in OPs is always going to add distortion without feedback.

As you say, it is preference.

Actually the quality (as in THD) of the low end reproduction has increased substantially for SET transformers now available and group phase delay as well. Some might not like that newer sound, as it is more accurate and does less IMD in the midrange and also less "boomy bass" which some expect from SET due to years of conditioning listening to older designs and stagnet new designs.

 

[tili]

is overdamping a thing?

 

[DonH56]

A control system is overdamped when the damping ratio is greater than 1. The effect is reduced bandwidth and slower rise time with no ringing or overshoot. Whether that matters very much depends upon the application; an overdamped system with 100 kHz of bandwidth is not going to cause any sort of audible degradation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damping_ratio

HTH - Don

 

[RayDunzl]

Underdamped...

My car ('95 Maxima) sat for a while because I couldn't bear to hand it over to some shop idiot to figure out why it was running like crap. It didn't throw a code from the ECU.

For whatever reason, the rear dampers decided to end their useful life by the time I figured out my main problem (broken solder joint in the Mass Airflow Sensor).

Driving around even on smooth roads was quite the adventure, the rear end was frighteningly loose. Go around a corner normally and the "feel" was like it was about to spin out.

The urge to countersteer at 15-20mph taking a corner on a smooth dry road does not fit well with Nissan's old motto "Enjoy the Ride".

I'm critically damped (or close enough) again now and all is well.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Underdamped...

My car ('95 Maxima) sat for a while because I couldn't bear to hand it over to some shop idiot to figure out why it was running like crap. It didn't throw a code from the ECU.

For whatever reason, the rear dampers decided to end their useful life by the time I figured out my main problem (broken solder joint in the Mass Airflow Sensor).

Driving around even on smooth roads was quite the adventure, the rear end was frighteningly loose. Go around a corner normally and the "feel" was like it was about to spin out.

The urge to countersteer at 15-20mph taking a corner on a smooth dry road does not fit well with Nissan's old motto "Enjoy the Ride".

I'm critically damped (or close enough) again now and all is well.

0.7 critical was my start point for racing car dampers
I remember when I was at Lola one of the customers had got a bit lost and was slow despite having one of the best budgets. They had been playing around a lot with dampers (race teams like to do that) and were secretive about it so I sent the support engineer out with a simple set of 0.7 critical linear dampers and when fitted they were 2 seconds quicker than their secret tweaky ones.
Dampers make a big difference if they are wrong...

 

[Sal1950]

Dampers make a big difference if they are wrong...

Shocks and spring rates, always the closest held secrets in many forms of racing.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Shocks and spring rates, always the closest held secrets in many forms of racing.

This is true, but it amazed me how many of the jealously guarded secrets are BS!
Measuring a car properly on a 7 post dynamic rig de-bunks a lot of myth!