Clipping

[littleharv93 10+ year member]

what does clipping mean on an amp

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[daboyfrumdabx 10+ year member]

It means you're sending square waves to a sub rather than round. Can damage sub and even your amp. Does your amp have a clipping indicator? If you're clipping you need to turn the gain down, before your ruin your equipment.

 

[littleharv93 10+ year member]

no it does not how do you tell if it is clipping

 

[LiveAudio911 10+ year member]

Well... the sound in a subwoofer will sound kinda farty.. kinda like a distorted sound.. not a well rounded sound.. might have kinda a flat pop to it.. this is caused by a flat wave.. a sub woofer can not reproduce a flat wave and where ever the wave becomes square typically the subwoofer does not complete the entire complete cycle because its missing the rest of the wave because the signal (wave) sent is flat near the peak of the wave..

Often time you can turn your gain down slightly or volume slightly and you will hear it go from a flat, distorted/unclear, farty, poping, slapping, sound to a smooth sound..

Loudspeakers will tend to sound distorted.. everything bleeds to geather.. real shrilly.. sometimes high pitched.. s' sound can sound real.. ssss and so can high level treble sound sssss

Typically the same thing.. turn down the gain slightly if you hear it smooth out..

 

[littleharv93 10+ year member]

it only sounds like that if i have my bass knob all the way up so.............

 

[05fronty 5,000+ posts]

no it does not how do you tell if it is clipping

your subs will give off a great aroma

 

[littleharv93 10+ year member]

what does this aroma smell like

 

[phemps 10+ year member]

why did you post a thread on thius? shits beat to fucking death

 

[littleharv93 10+ year member]

what r you talking about

 

[CL1CKCLACK 5,000+ posts]

clipping is not "square waves" lol. clipping is when the tops and the bottoms of the sound wave is cut off. causing the sub to not be moving for a microsecond, and therefore not cooling for that section of the wave

like this:

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

oh youll know it's a real hard smell to miss but by the time you smell it its too late and voice coil damage has already occurred

 

[phemps 10+ year member]

look it up. theres so much info on it out teh internet becauwse of how many people ask the same questions reguarding it

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

clipping is not "square waves" lol. clipping is when the tops and the bottoms of the sound wave is cut off. causing the sub to not be moving for a microsecond, and therefore not cooling for that section of the wave

Partially true. Hard clipping is actually a pretty good approximation of a square wave, but usually someone with even a shred of common sense has turned things down before it gets to that point because the sound has gone to hell and back. The sub does NOT stop moving UNLESS it hits a mechanical limit or the power applied at the peak can no longer generate enough force for the motor to overcome the surround and spider forces attempting to pull the cone back to the rest position. This usually isn't the case. Mild clipping isn't usually much of an issue in reality. The increase in average power is not tremendous until you start getting into heavy clipping where there is more time spent at max voltage/amperage than not.

 

[T3mpest 10+ year member]

good post. People need to realize that the since wave does not actually show the position of the speaker. The sine wave is showing you what the voltage coming from the amp is doing. Basically an amp can only put out so much power. Clipping means that you are attempting to exceed this limit. Since the peaks can't exceed a certain amount of voltage, when you keep turning it up, the parts just below that peak, becomes peaks as well since they CAN still be boosted. This increases the average power to to the speaker over time since the speaker is recieving alot more overall power. It has nothing to do with a coil not moving, as long as a singal is being applied the coil will be moving back and forth. Only time it wouldnt' as Helotaxi said is if you put so much power to it that it hits it's limits, then it'll bottom out.

 

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

^^^very well said, both of you.