wrote:
If you really want the scoop on tis, here is the technalia. (sp)

An amplifier has what is called a damping factor. Tube amps are usually
low, solid state amps are higher. Just looked and yours is rated at 25.
this assumes that means into eight ohms. This is because that is what all
the other readings are taken at.

the damping (or dampering n the old days) factor is the ratio of the
speaker impedance to the effective impedance of the output of the amp.
what is means is the amp is an absolutely perfect voltage source with
unlimited current, but there is a resistor in series with it.

Since your damping factor is 25, that means the effective output
impedance of the amp is one twenty-fifth of eight ohms. Tht is about 0.32
ohms, which is probably the value of the emitter resistors, but those do
NOT determine the output impedance and therefor the damping factor. They
are almost always witin the feedback loop so their resistance is
nullified, mostly that is.

A higher damping factor means that the voltage output is not affected as
much with variations of the load impedance. For example, if you connect
another speaker to the same cannel, the original speaker will not
decrease in vlume. Instead of the voltage dropping, the amp puts out more
current, to maintain the voltage output which is determined by the input
and your settings.

I have a Phas Linear 400-2, which has a damping factor of 1,000, actually
the highest I have ever seen. It is not just done with feedback, it takes
current drive to do it, which is how it does do it. With enough feedback
you can enhance the damping factor, but then the amp could become
unstable with highly reactive loads. It makes for enough math to give you
a headache, better off just to design it to not need too much feedback.

NOW TO THE QUESTIO ! TADA !

Here's a table on wire resistance :

http://www.interfacebus.com/AWG-tabl...esistance.html

Let's just say you are using 16 guage wire which has a resistance of four
ohms per thousand foot. Of course there are two wires so that means eight
ohms, IF you are using a thousand feet. If the impedance of the speaker
is a perfect eight ohms, you will lose exactly half of the power. It is
also not in the feedback loop so that means when the speaker impedance is
lower, like at lower bass frequencies, there will be more loss which will
affect the low end.


You will loose half of the available power, which will be 1/4 to the
speaker.


But you are not using a thousand feet. Let's take it as 100 feet then,
one tenth. That means that if the damping factor of the amp was infinite,
after the wire you are left with a damping factor of ten. Is it one tenth
of the load (speaker) impedance. At twenty feet, which is one fifth of
that, just multiply by five because that's the side of the equation you are on.

The actual damp(er)ing factor as seen by the speaker itself is the vector
sum of the wire resistance or other inpedance and the actual source
resistance (damping factor/load) of the amplifier in quesrtion.

In other words it realy doesn't matter all that much. Also you could just
kick it up to 14 guage, which is only 2.5 ohms per thousand feet.

All in all you are not going to hear that much difference. It takes ten
times the power to seem twice as loud. A doubling or halving of power
results ion a very small difference in percieved volume. It is a bit
easier to discern when it comes to frequency response/tonal balance, but
not all that much.

A fifty foot run that introduces 0.2 ohms resistance, with a speaker that
is eight ohms but drops to two ohms at 25 Hz (if it can even reproduce
that), will have a loss at 25 Hz of ten percent of the voltage.

Double or half the voltage is APPROXIMATELY 3 dB. the difference here, I
am pretty sure is not even one dB, and even the most golden ears in the
world will have a hard time hearing that.


6 dB. Very noticeable.

Greg


So indeed, all the hype about monster cable and all that **** is just
that - hype. On a long ruin you CAN hear the difference but you will have
to do a a/b compare to notice. I actually have. I used to have a bench
that was set up so I could do that.

Funny though, that some people would probably prefer the "degraded" sound. Really.