Bronze Member Username: MotomazeOnt Canada Post Number: 33 Registered: Sep-06 | slew rate of an amplifier???? what do they mean? check out www.zapco.com |
Silver Member Username: Freezeman_7Lindsay, Oklahoma Post Number: 344 Registered: May-06 | i went and looked but couldnt find what you were talking about. i do love there amps tho.. |
Gold Member Username: Alias747MN Post Number: 1379 Registered: Apr-05 | http://www.zapco.com/prod/ref_prods/11001Frame.htm In the amplifier specs it talks about slew rate. Slew rate is a spec that defines how fast the amplifier is and how quickly it can reproduce what is being played. I admire Zapco for including Slew Rate in their specs, and they make amzing top notch amps. However, no other amp company really publishes this info on their amps so it is a hard to make a baseline to compare to. Just know if you are buying a Zapco amp, you will not be dissapointed, because it is grade A stuff. |
Gold Member Username: JuliobSanto DomingoDominican Re... Post Number: 2733 Registered: Dec-05 | ^^^^ |
Gold Member Username: TheelfkeeperStockbridge, GA USA Post Number: 3190 Registered: Feb-05 | zapco publishes a lot of info most companies do not. just start reading any of their manuals, which i think are avaliable on their site as well. Zapco amps are great, i switched from all JL Slash series to Zapco Reference series with the Symbilink signal system. |
Silver Member Username: N2audioLawrence, Ks USA Post Number: 999 Registered: Mar-04 | there's not an amp on the market that has a slew rate low or high enough to be audibly different from any other amp. High end companies like a long list of meaningless specs - it entertains the smart people and confuses the dumb ones -- it's a win-win. |
Silver Member Username: Audioguy22S.F., Cal. Post Number: 244 Registered: Jul-05 | What Optidriven said is most likely spot on! Althoe fast slew is better, I would not buy an amp on the slew spec! Dampaning factor is important, the higher the better. over 300 is good and over 500 is real good! |
Silver Member Username: N2audioLawrence, Ks USA Post Number: 1000 Registered: Mar-04 | "Dampaning factor is important, the higher the better. over 300 is good and over 500 is real good!" Then there are the tube amps which are often marketed as elite SQ amps...some have DF's in the single digits. it's just marketing |
Gold Member Username: CarguyPost Number: 5684 Registered: Nov-04 | Tube amps are great during winter. They keep your car nice and warm. |
Gold Member Username: James1115Ct Post Number: 6675 Registered: Dec-04 | I love the sound of tube's I wish they wernt so bulky. This is a good article pertaining to this question. The damping factor indicates the ability of an amplifier to resist a change in it's output signal. If an amplifier has a very low damping factor, the speaker load (or any load - like a resistive dummy load) can cause the output to differ (possibly audibly) from what it's intended to be. For virtually every amplifier made, the damping factor is easily high enough to prevent audible changes in the output signal. Some people say a DF (Damping Factor) of 200 is the minimum acceptable DF. Others say it's 100. there are even those that say a DF of 50 is OK. I've tried inserting a series resistor with speakers and could hear no audible difference at a DF of 50. Around a DF of ~25, I started to hear a difference with 'some' speakers. At around a DF of 10, the difference was significant enough to be heard with virtually every speaker. You may think it always sounded worse with a low DF. Well, not always. Some speakers (mostly high frequency speakers) actually started to sound a little better (probably from a change in the frequency response which was due to its impedance curve). Of course, some speakers sounded worse with the low DF. In virtually all cases, the change in sound quality was a 'softer' sound. For very low DFs, the punchy bass was significantly reduced but the bass sounded smoother (which may or may not be a good thing - depending on your taste in music). Now, I'm not saying that the 'smoother' or 'softer' sound was better (because the change in sound IS a type of distortion). I'm just trying to let you know how the sound changed with the low (extremely low) damping factor. |
Gold Member Username: JuliobSanto DomingoDominican Re... Post Number: 2768 Registered: Dec-05 | they're so expensive |
Gold Member Username: Alias747MN Post Number: 1400 Registered: Apr-05 | ^^^ Yeah James, That is from BCAE isn' it? I found that very interesting. |
Silver Member Username: Audioguy22S.F., Cal. Post Number: 245 Registered: Jul-05 | Thanks for that James, I have found what you said to be true. I've always told folks that amps with very high dampaning factors are very important for woofers. Over the years and hundreds of amps I've installed, higher DF amps always bring the best out of woofers(the larger the woofer the bigger the effect). A couple of years back I changed an amp in a pickup(one ten" woofer) I put in a SS VGA that had a very high DF, it replaced a cheap amp with a very low DF. The difference was night & day! Bass got very tight and controled and hit like a jack hammer! The two amps were both SS and very close in power, the low end one was around 50 DF and the VGA was around 500 (i think). |
Gold Member Username: Basshead86Try Google Post Number: 6763 Registered: Aug-05 | i have heard quite a few DLS amps and they are among the cleanest around, and they have a DF of >200..... |
Gold Member Username: Basshead86Try Google Post Number: 6764 Registered: Aug-05 | it seems to me the higher the power output of the amplifier, the higher the Dampening needs to be to control that power |
Gold Member Username: Basshead86Try Google Post Number: 6765 Registered: Aug-05 | i own 2 amps...a DLS A6 and a U.S.Amps 4300x...and they both have a >200 DF...and i am constantly being complimented on the "cleanness" of my system....DF is an overrated spec, and you shouldn't look at that alone....but oyu guys already know that! lol |
Silver Member Username: Bass__monkeyLas Vegas, Nevada U.S. of A. Post Number: 127 Registered: Sep-06 | damping factor is control... and in the matter of subwoofers the more damping the more control of the cone... |
Gold Member Username: James1115Ct Post Number: 6678 Registered: Dec-04 | anything over 100-150 is very good Josh. As it gets higher and higher it is harder to tell the difference as it is from like 50-100. As far as spec's on a amp go it is a pretty important one, but most of the spec's they give are just there like optidriven said to make smart people argue and dumb people think they got something amazing. |
Gold Member Username: Basshead86Try Google Post Number: 6766 Registered: Aug-05 | agreed^^^^ i believe that the more dampening the more control, yes, but with a certain amount of power you will not be able to tell the diff. bewteen 200 and 500....maybe with a few thousand watts and just a bassline....but that is kind of ignorant to buy an amp solely on its DF...what if the amp has an inadequate power supply? cheap components? who knows mang. lol |
Gold Member Username: James1115Ct Post Number: 6705 Registered: Dec-04 | exactly mr Josh! lol |
Gold Member Username: James1115Ct Post Number: 6706 Registered: Dec-04 | exactly mr Josh! lol |
Gold Member Username: Basshead86Try Google Post Number: 6775 Registered: Aug-05 | it feels good to be right....haha |
Gold Member Username: James1115Ct Post Number: 6722 Registered: Dec-04 | lol your a tool |
Gold Member Username: Basshead86Try Google Post Number: 6797 Registered: Aug-05 |