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Clipping


Anthony10111

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Clipping is bad. Even at low levels. 

What clipping is is when your speaker rises and stops, lowers and stops. It needs to be able to keep moving up and down with no stopping. That's how it cools the voice coil(s). If the speaker itself stops the motion, and the coil(s) is(are) still producing heat, eventually the heat is going to be too great for the cooling to overcome and your coil(s) will become toast. 

Now, when people set their gains with an overlap (-5db or more in some cases), they do that because using a specific test tone to set gains is a dedicated frequency to that specific tone. It produces a much... for lack of a better term... louder tone than what you would encounter in music. That all being said, that would still be introducing clipping into the system, but low levels of clipping that don't happen frequently or often enough that the cooling can't overcome the access heat produced. 

So if you're going to introduce a little clipping into your system, it's something that has to be monitored. I'd you smell something cooking, lower the level of clipping ASAP. If you feel your dust caps getting warm lower the level of clipping immediately! 

If it where me, and you know your subs can handle more, rather than introduce potentially damaging clipping, I'd upgrade my electrical, and upgrade my amps. That's my opinion

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

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Kind of an oxymoron to say "I set my gains properly using a Multimeter" to start.

How bad is clipping? It kills stuff, so it's pretty bad. It occurs when the sine waves go from curved to square and you get thermal and or mechanical failures.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/28/2021 at 10:08 PM, rockFord_Expedition said:

Kind of an oxymoron to say "I set my gains properly using a Multimeter" to start.

How bad is clipping? It kills stuff, so it's pretty bad. It occurs when the sine waves go from curved to square and you get thermal and or mechanical failures.

Yes. with a multimeter.  Using AC voltage.. I wanna know how quick clipping can hurt your stuff..  Low and high levels 

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A lot of clipping, quick. 

Not "a lot" of clipping, could be quick, could be slow.

The only true way of knowing you're not sending a clipped signal through your amp to your speakers is with a distortion detector or an oscilloscope. 

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

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