Course you can, if it sounds like complete shit (distortion) then your obviously clipping)
Yea you will obviously be clipping at that point, but what your hearing is distortion, not clipping, right? Cause the actual clipping starts before you can hear it I thought. Just cause your not distorted doesn't mean your not clipping from what I understand and the ONLY way to know for sure is with an Oscope.
true,many people tune their system by ear and have 0 problems with it though.
Yea I understand not everyone has access to an Oscope and rely only on their ears, hell I've tuned alot of systems by ear. I was just making the point that you can't HEAR clipping cause it's not a noise, it's a sign wave that is clipped off at the peaks.