How accurate is the clipping light?

[benner410 10+ year member]

I have a clipping light on my remote knob, and it flashes on the peaks. Does this mean it's for sure clipping?

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[THUMPPER 10+ year member]

flashing on the peaks is OK...you just don't want it lit right up

 

[mr_kebo 10+ year member]

flashing is ok solid light is not

 

[macq32 10+ year member]

Flashing is ok? I've got a full meter on my amp, on certain notes it would touch red (clipping) for a split second. I turned the gain down so I'm always out of red 100% of the time.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Flickering is fine. That is only transient clipping and if the clip detection circuit is designed correctly, it means that you're getting all the amp has to give. If it comes on and stays on, you have a problem and need to turn the gain down.

 

[macq32 10+ year member]

Hmm, im scared to push it to that, but now i have something to think about

 

[Ge0 10+ year member]

To answer your original question, the indicator should be fairly accurate. The is not a hard circuit to implement.

Get yourself a test CD with 0db test tones or sweeps in the frequency range you run your amp at. Crank volume up until the clipping light starts to come on. If your gains are set properly, it will just start to flicker at max volume. If it comes on solid before you get to max volume then bump your gain down until it starts to flicker.

Hope this helped,

Ge0

 

[tcguy85 10+ year member]

the clip light on my DD S4 flickers when i really crank it. never blown a speaker yet. had the 6.5" rsd's on that amp for a long time with the light flickering quite often and they survived it w/o any issues.

very short little flickers will be fine. when you get into hard clipping is when you'll have issues.

 

[Haunz 10+ year member]

If the light is flickering that means you are already hard clipping your amp.. clip lights generally don't flash untill you are overdriving the peaks by at least 1db...

wether or not that matters is pretty much up to you..

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

If the light is flickering that means you are already hard clipping your amp.. clip lights generally don't flash untill you are overdriving the peaks by at least 1db...

Depends on the design of the "clipping" circuit and whether it is a clipping circuit or simply an indicator that illuminates when a certain voltage threshold is reached on the output.

 

[TurdFergueson2 5,000+ posts]

I was thinking this same thing today. I was playing something way louder than normal and the clipping light started blinking on my 2200D. It never goes solid, but on songs with punchy lows (best way I can describe them) it blinks.