So No Matter What If Ur Amp Is All The Way Up Ur Clipping?

[MickyMcD]

yea i never have it all the way up i was just curious to how u find out when someone is

Usual Methods;

1) Oscilloscope. This device will show you a graphical representation of the waveform. A flat, or clipped, top of each positive and negative cycle indicates overdriving of the power stage (amplifier clipping), overdriven pre-amplification signal (source clipping) or some funky-ass synthesizer beats from the 80's.

2) Audible clipping. When sources clip, it's not so bad for the drivers. But you WILL hear it. It sounds like a harsh, grating sound referred to as unharmonic or harmonic distortion. Unharmonic distortion is common in source overdriving, harmonic is a bit more common as an omnipresent distortion in MosFET devices and overdriven amplifiers. Think of a rock and roll guitar. That is distortion.

Low frequency distortion is a little bit harder to hear, but it is fairly obvious. You will have a smooth bass note, but once overdriven, it takes on a muffled version of the same harmonic distortion described earlier. This is because amplifier overdrive synthesizes distortion peaks at set intervals of octaves, making it harmonic. If you are clipping out at 50hz, the next octave up is (usually) beyond the frequency response of the driver, and thus sounds muffled and dampened. That and the fact you are clipping the shit out of the waveform, but hey, whatever.

P.S. Stop being such a rude and arrogant child. Your horrible spelling is either a) incredibly alike to your friend or yourself, and your friend was never here.

Cheers,

Mick

[audiofanaticz]

I still find this funny...

i know what clipping is

whats clipping??

:01nocomment8so:

Edit:

i kno im a newbie u cant see it under my name

:01nocomment8so:

Edited October 19, 2008 by audiofanaticz

[reinke]

I still find this funny...

:01nocomment8so:

OWNED AGAIN.

[Herrie_V]

I dont think he is so noobish at all...

Look his other posts...

He's acting like a noob, but i think its a joke.

Also the bad language doesnt help him much.

I dont like him, sorry.

[David]

me either herrie, if he doesnt chill the f-out he is gonna end up locked in the ban cemetery

[audiofanaticz]

me either herrie, if he doesnt chill the f-out he is gonna end up locked in the ban cemetery

my apologize yto you david. Dont wanna get banned Tho dont think I would, but this guy crossed the line IMO.

And I think you can relate with that. :01nocomment8so: lol

I may act like a know it all, but everything I post on or help users on Im usally right (or at least no one proves me wrong), if they do congrats, and I learned something new.

[Neel]

X2 on what mick said except for the fact that clipping was not so bad for the drivers, clipping will indirectly damage drivers , most speakers cool themselves by oscillating up and down with a nice clean sine wave, when you play a tone that is "clipped" the speaker is no longer moving in a nice sine wave, instead it has a clipped wave not allowing it to go all the way up, and all the way down. clipping causes heat , heat causes toasty voice coils.. This is what i always believed , unless Mick is correct and would like to clear it up for me.

[Boon]

X2 on what mick said except for the fact that clipping was not so bad for the drivers, clipping will indirectly damage drivers , most speakers cool themselves by oscillating up and down with a nice clean sine wave, when you play a tone that is "clipped" the speaker is no longer moving in a nice sine wave, instead it has a clipped wave not allowing it to go all the way up, and all the way down. clipping causes heat , heat causes toasty voice coils.. This is what i always believed , unless Mick is correct and would like to clear it up for me.

From what I gather Mick is an audio engineer with experience since WAY back

Besides, if you look at music on a scope you'll see it has lots of funny shaped waveforms... music is rarely a pure sine wave (unless it uses synthesised bass) so there are times where the cone stops momentarily. Slight clipping isn't that bad because the cone still spends a relatively large amount of time oscillating, although the forces of the sudden stop-start can be a little bit unpleasant for the woofer (mechanically)

It's only once the amplifier is driven to some SERIOUS clipping (square wave territory) and the time with the cone spent stationary starts to massively exceed the time spent moving that it becomes an issue. A little bit of clipping just looks like someone lopped the very top off the wave and is often barely audible (although the resonance can make some funky effects)

Hope that clears it up for you a bit

[MickyMcD]

Neel, you are correct in the fact that yes, clipping a power amplifier will damage drivers. But Boon is 100% correct in saying that it's only when you are in serious square wave mode that 'the shit just got real.' An old trick in PA was to let your bottom end amplifiers just clip out that wee bit, just shaving the tops off the wave, instead of letting the limiters go wild. That gave you an extra 2-3db, which can be the difference between a pathetic or excellent mix or sound. Me personally, my method is to use amplifiers with at least double, if not triple the reccommended continuous power handling of the driver, limit it and have a metric dickton of headroom.

But heavy clipping? You'll be singing 'Puff the broken driver' for a while.

Cheers,

Mick

[Boon]

An old trick in PA was to let your bottom end amplifiers just clip out that wee bit, just shaving the tops off the wave, instead of letting the limiters go wild. That gave you an extra 2-3db

A trick that a lot of SPLers still use today Clipping isn't always your enemy.