What causes clipping?

Posted by Todd [IP: 206.10.59.233] on December 31, 1998 at 10:27:00:

In Reply to: What causes clipping? posted by Mark Sung on December 31, 1998 at 02:47:16:

: Is there someone who can explain to me what speaker clipping is actually caused by? Is it the amount of current that the receiver puts out?

: You see, I have a HK AVR65 receiver, and I do turn up the volume quite high. I want to make sure that I am not damaging my speakers by listening to it at high volumes. The HK puts out 65wpc +/- 40amps. At what point should I limit the volume.

: Thanks

Clipping happens when you try to demand more power from the amplifier than it can deliver. Clipping is just what the term "clipping" describes. If you were to look at an audio waveform with an oscilloscope during clipping you would see that the peaks of the waveforms were literally cut off or "clipped".

Clipping generates damaging harmonics that can destroy the speaker drivers (usually tweeters, sometimes midrange, usually not woofers)in short order.

The power output of the amplifier has nothing to do with clipping. However, clipping is more likely with a low powered amplifier because of the tendency to try to "crank it up" beyond the capacity of the amplifer.

The best way to avoid clipping (short of continuously monitoring the audio waveform)is to simply lower the volume if the sound is distored or harsh sounding.

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