Clipping???

[302yota 10+ year member]

when do you know if your amp is clipping or not.....i set my amp with a dmm, and everything was done right.....and i know just because i set it with a dmm don't mean i'm not sending a clipped signal.....but i would really like to know how i would be able to tell if my amp is clipping?

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[Buck 5,000+ posts]

I can tell with my sub/amp. If they both get warm quickly, then the signal is clipped. Just be conservative on the gains.

 

[gunz4me 10+ year member]

I find it easier to set stuff with my oscilloscope //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[Xprime4 10+ year member]

when the bassline aren't as accurated than at low level, you're probably clipping.

Also when you're clipping the hell out of your amp, it just doesn't get louder... just muddier. But that's when you are already clippping it a lot.

A sub overpushed can sound like clipping too

 

[snb778 5,000+ posts]

Ught ohhhhhhhhhh.... CLIPPING IS BACK!!, look out, it'll get ya!

 

[Haunz 10+ year member]

If it's a full range amp you can play a tone around the lower frequency range that the amp is going to play with a $2 piezo tweeter in parallel with your load.. when you begin to clip the amp the piezo will start to buzz with the harmonics..

You really need an O-Scope though, otherwise setting by ear is probably good enough..

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

when do you know if your amp is clipping or not.....i set my amp with a dmm, and everything was done right.....and i know just because i set it with a dmm don't mean i'm not sending a clipped signal.....but i would really like to know how i would be able to tell if my amp is clipping?

If you set the gain with a DMM using a 0dB test tone, and you are sure your amp can produce the power you used in V=sqrt(pXr) w/o clipping then there is ALMOST no way the amp will ever clip because music rarely peaks at 0dB.

Also, assuming you had your HU volume at a very high level to set the gain you should rarely, if ever, be listening at that level.

Minor clipping is hard to hear, but isn't much of a problem any way.

Clipping is what you hear when you try to use a standard (aftermarket or stock) HU to drive decent aftermarket speakers at high volume w/o a HP filter. Just nasty sounding distortion.

But not all distortion is clipping. When there is plenty of amplifier power available you'll hear speaker distortion (bottoming out) before you'll hear the amp clipping.