Clipping

[Johnno2]

What does this actually mean, I have heard it can damage speakers,tweeters mainly,I live in a detached house and occasionally get a bit reckless with the volume,although I dont think I have ever had clipping I worry something might smoke on very bass heavy tracks, . What would happen to the tweeters if clipping occurs just briefly, would they stop working completely or could they get damaged but still work with degraded sound

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[Andrew Everard]

It basically occurs when the amp's power supply can't deliver energy as fast as the output devices are using it, and is so called because the effect is to clip off the extremes of the output waveform - ie the tops of the peaks and the bottoms of the troughs.

It usually damages tweeters by causing their voice-coils, made of hair-thin windings of wire, to over heat and fuse together. This can cause the tweeters to lose some output, scrape or even fail altogether.

 

[Johnno2]

Right ,thanks,seems a bit clearer now,so basically its the jagged wave form that hurts the speakers,so I assume some types of 'music' or noise such as loud clicks or even interstation noise on FM radio could spoil the tweeters! even if there is enough power in the amp, The tweeters on AE evo3s dont seem as sharp and bright as when new ,is it possible they may have a little clipping damage from being played loud? My amps is a Marantz 7001 which is on paper is powerful,maybee it's my own ears !,better be careful with the volume! Or they could be 'run in' of course

 

[Anonymous]

Well that's not true - interstation noise on FM Radio will not blow the tweeters because it is only the output stage of the power amplifier not receiving enough power that causes clipping that, in turn, causes the tweeters to heat up excessively.

 

[manicm]

Andrew Everard:

It basically occurs when the amp's power supply can't deliver energy as fast as the output devices are using it, and is so called because the effect is to clip off the extremes of the output waveform - ie the tops of the peaks and the bottoms of the troughs.

It usually damages tweeters by causing their voice-coils, made of hair-thin windings of wire, to over heat and fuse together. This can cause the tweeters to lose some output, scrape or even fail altogether.

How can you tell when listening? When the music seems to lack dynamics as in all instruments and vocals seem to be at the same volume, or is it more obvious? Can one readily tell when clipping occurs? Can you give an example?

 

[Big Chris]

manicm:Andrew Everard:

It basically occurs when the amp's power supply can't deliver energy as fast as the output devices are using it, and is so called because the effect is to clip off the extremes of the output waveform - ie the tops of the peaks and the bottoms of the troughs.

It usually damages tweeters by causing their voice-coils, made of hair-thin windings of wire, to over heat and fuse together. This can cause the tweeters to lose some output, scrape or even fail altogether.

How can you tell when listening? When the music seems to lack dynamics as in all instruments and vocals seem to be at the same volume, or is it more obvious? Can one readily tell when clipping occurs? Can you give an example?

If you listen carefully, you can actually hear the volume decrease or the sound change subtley as you turn the volume up. This is where it starts clipping. If you want max volume, listen for this point and dial it back a notch or two.

Also, you might find it actually cuts out all together for a second during the most testing pieces. This is not good, again, dial the volume down.

 

[Andrew Everard]

manicm:How can you tell when listening? When the music seems to lack dynamics as in all instruments and vocals seem to be at the same volume, or is it more obvious? Can one readily tell when clipping occurs? Can you give an example?

When the music sounds crushed or really compressed, or starts to hurt your ears. That's a pretty good indication...

 

[Andrew Everard]

Johnno2:so basically its the jagged wave form that hurts the speakers

No, it's the distortion caused by the flattening off of those peaks and troughs.