Clipping

[Caddy 10+ year member]

I hear the term clipping a lot can someone give me some feedback on what clipping is and what causes it.

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[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Clipping is, in essence, overdriving the input circuitry of an output device. This is a very deep subject, that without a more specific question, could take a long time to cover. Please make your question as specific as possible. Do you think you are experiencing this issue?

 

[Caddy 10+ year member]

I have recently upgraded my front stage amp from a Diamond 300 to a RF-400-4 power series now i have low engine noise and 2 of my 6.5s started giving of a burning smell and get distorted after maybe 30 min of play. Or if i really crank up my system witch normally at about have on my volume.

 

[sjv13 10+ year member]

Yeah, could be clipping.

Clipping in other words is when the speaker tries to produce a squarish sound wave, instead of a nice smooth one. This is physically impossible to accomplish for a speaker.

EDIT: it happens when the amp's gain is too high, and the amp is overloaded and cant produce the right type of signal to send to the speaker.

And by all means, correct me if I am wrong. This is just my basic understanding. I would love to learn more about it too.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

I have recently upgraded my front stage amp from a Diamond 300 to a RF-400-4 power series now i have low engine noise and 2 of my 6.5s started giving of a burning smell and get distorted after maybe 30 min of play. Or if i really crank up my system witch normally at about have on my volume.

A burning smell is bad.

Clipping is a term we use when the output of an amp or preout is pushed beyond its limits. The output can't follow the input past its limit, so the signal "clips" at the peaks. This is a major type of distortion we get in car audio and it happens when people adjust gains too high. The resulting distortion sounds nasty and in extreme case can damage speakers or subs.

Not sure if this will help or not, but here's a picture of a clipped waveform when I drive my HU speakers beyond the limits:

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

Clipping is a term to describe a waveform. Many people use it to describe a setting of gain or volume, which will produce clipping, but isn't clipping in of itself. As shown above, clipping is when part, or all, of the wave is flat, to put it in layman's terms. You need to understand the relationship between your what your gain setting does on your amp and what your pre-amp voltage is on your HU to truly understand this. But clipping, in short, has been described above.

 

[calebkhill 10+ year member]

amp could be too powerful for the speakers...

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

I'm willing to bet it's because maybe you have an EQ that has the bass boosted, or you could simply just be over driving them

 

[calebkhill 10+ year member]

I'm willing to bet it's because maybe you have an EQ that has the bass boosted, or you could simply just be over driving them

Most likely whats happening..

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

The amount of power the speaker receives is shown as the area under the sine wave. As the waveform begins to square off, the area under the wave still increases (drastically), but the amplitude does not. This means the speaker is accepting more and more power, while its excursion remains at a given level. Since a speaker cools itself by pumping cold air through itself, increasing power to it while its excursion does not increase drastically increases the chances of the speaker failing thermally. This is, of course, if the clipped amplifier is capable of producing enough output to create that thermal failure. Do not make the common mistake of thinking clipping in and of itself damages speakers, it does not. A 10watt amplifier will never create enough power to blow a 500 watt speaker, no matter how radically it is clipped. A heavily clipped amplifier is capable of producing as much as twice its normal rated output, which is why clipping is so often the cause of speaker failure.

Someone above said a clipped wave is when part or all the wave is flat. That is technically not true. A completely flat wave is not a wave at all, as amplitude would be zero. This occurs when there is no signal present. Nitpicking a bit here, but that statement may have confused some people so I decided to clarify.

Also remember that the amplifier is not the only thing that can clip a signal. A preamp device such as an EQ or crossover can clip the waveform also. Its imperative that the gains of all devices in the signal chain are properly set.