I think you are way off on the significance of that damping factor number! Here is an excellent article on the subject:

http://www.studio-systems.com/audiofeatures/novdec99/dampingFactor/damp01.htm

The paper concludes that a damping factor beyond 20 is at the point of diminishing returns. This matches my experience in the area. And you are CERTAINLY not going to damage your woofers or anything else if the damping factor is not 'high enough'.

Damping factor is one of those mis-understood things that tends to get way overblown in it's significance. Kind of like "24 bit at 192Khz", big impressive sounding numbers that are useless in the real world get way more meaning attached to them than they deserve.

Believe me, a damping factor of 80 is VERY good, and one that will effectively damp out the back EMF generated by the motor assembly (voice coil and magnet) of any woofer.

There are some very significant downsides to having insane damping figures too. Damping can be increased by the application more negative feedback. You can take a mediocre amplifier, and give it a damping factor in the _hundreds_ if you apply enough negative feedback! But do you want this? Excessive negative feedback has it's own problems, and can make an amplifier sound terrible. I have a test report from an old hi-fi magazine of a tube amplifier with a damping factor of something like 200. The manufacturer stated that they used some insane amount of negative feedback to achieve it. The report concluded with the warning that the amplifier should be used only with speaker systems 'approved' by the amplifier's manufacturer - OTHERWISE OSCILLATION WOULD RESULT! Somehow I don't think that amplifier sounded very good!

A good design is a balancing act, and the ultimate goal is to make a good sounding amplifier. Stressing one parameter just to make it "look good on the spec sheet" is NOT a good way to design.

A damping factor of 80 is more than enough!


[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited November 27, 2002).]