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Re: Control of Maggies

Posted by morricab (S) on October 11, 2006 at 08:35:09

In Reply to: Control of Maggies posted by Al Sekela on October 7, 2006 at 21:16:04:

Sorry Al, I just don't see how this is so. The Maggie is a largely resistive speaker is it not? This means that damping factor should not be critical to getting a flat frequency response. The bass driver is somewhat High Q so I maybe there is a problem there but I was driving my Apogees with everything under the sun and they worked pretty well with most of them, including 20 watt Cary SET amps.

If you look at amps with damping factor over say 10 you find that there is only a small change in frequency response even with wildly swinging impedance and phase characteristics.

The other problem I have with your statement is that tone improves with damping factor. My experience has been just the opposite because high damping factor invariably means high feedback, which my experience has shown to be the killer of natural tone.

If by purer you mean you hear the fundamental with less of the harmonic structure then I would agree with you, otherwise I think this statement is simply not correct. The best sounding tonally, and most precise imaging I have gotten from ANY amp to date is from a pair of KR audio Kronzillas that have zero feedback. Also the Vacuumstate DPA 300B images amazingly good with very natural tone and again zero negative feedback. I have yet to hear a high feedback amp with natural tone.

Both have low damping factors and still control speakers very well, especially the KR amps. IMO, these amps effectively dispell the damping factor myth. If the amp lacks control then it is perhaps due to an inadequate circuit design or power supply but I would say a damping factor above 5-10 is unnecessary with 99% of speakers and especially the mostly resistive in nature Maggies.

One of the best sounds I have heard from Maggies came from a pair of 1.6qr driven by 18 watt Audio Note P4se monos. These are parallel single ended designs with no feedback. Also, the same speakers sounded fantastic with a pair of Silvaweld OTL monos. These of course had about 8db of negative feedback (not too much actually) and a damping factor of 10. Perfect control of the bass and quite musical as well.

What I have heard from high damping factor amps is actually more control but less quality to the sound of the bass. Overdamped is just as bad as underdamped because it takes on a dull thudding sound without all the tone diffentiation and texture. I heard this when I had a krell KSA150 strapped to my Apogees. All slam and no tone or texture.

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