THD vs Damping

What is more important when it comes to the performance of the amplifier....THD or Damping?  Reason i ask this is b/c i am looking into the Arc line of amps and they have damping factors of 2000...the sales person told me that this is way more important than THD b/c you can not hear the difference of .1% THD vs. .005%THD.  Also, does this have a huge affect on SPL.. thanks

Well since you are not trying to sell me anything then i will believe you.  I don't know why so many local shop owners (here in my city) insist on lying about so many things just to get ur sale.  Don't they udnerstand that one bad experience has 10 times more of an affect then 1 good experience?  Anyway, what specs on the amp should i consider most (other than RMS)?

That article was a bit over my head...but i understood the conclusions the author was trying to draw.  This leads to my next question.  When looking at an amplifer (using those 4 specs) what would you like those numbers be when u are buying an amp for yourself? Frequency Response, S/N, THD, and efficiency.  And what amps fit that profile?

Your best bet is to go through the high end amps and look at their ratings.  What you see is what you get, as they are more likely than the lower end brands to publish true specs.  Make a note of any that may have unordinary specs in those four categories, and then do some research into user and professional opinions on the amp in question.

You have categorized yourself as a high-end shopper, so take it to the next level.  Reliance on specs alone will not net you the gold.

Steve's advice is good, but I'll try to give you an answer.  You want the frequency response to be wide, the efficiency and S/N ratio to be high, the THD to be low.  :)

No, I am not trying to avoid giving you a straight answer with numbers, I am merely trying to give you a starting point for comparing amplifier specs.  The bottom line is how it SOUNDS.  I've heard some amps with 60db S/N (which is really low) and 5% THD (which is really high) sound better than another amps with far better specifications.  It depends on the application and many other factors than just what's on paper.  To really compare amps (or source units or speakers or anything else IMO) you have to actually listen to it (and run your own tests.)  If comparing two amplifiers and listening to them is impossible, I always opt for 1) name brand that I trust, 2) best on-paper specs as described above, 3) best power rating for my purposes, 4) lowest price.