is there a way to tell if im clipping?

[ekah]

i know theres tools out there to tell me if im clipping if so what tools would i need if you could give me a list and prices or links that would be nice

im using a cab1600 on a psi plat 2 and i have had the cab for about a year and the psi is maybe 6 months old but i feel im babying it to much because i blew my dd 1512 after i smelled it i thought it was something else next thing you know it sounds like broken glass

but then again i was over powering it by a lot but if theres tools or any sort of remedies with a dmm

is is simply when my voltage dips below 12v then thats at its peak power? just scared to turn the gains since its at about not even turned quarter way.

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[BOOMINGRANDPA 5,000+ posts]

jeff always says bass hard 5 mins touch amp if it's warm u good., if it hot turn gain down., if barley warm u can turn gain up.. u can set with meter but again as jeff said every song u play is different some have lots of bass some don't.. so i learn his trick "active gaining" turn sub volume up on rock songs down on rebassed or heavy bass songs.. check amp every once in a while for over heating.. funny/good thing about my amp when it clips it cuts out for like 1 second, so i know where it does that at so i don't turn it that loud..

 

[ekah]

jeff always says bass hard 5 mins touch amp if it's warm u good., if it hot turn gain down., if barley warm u can turn gain up.. u can set with meter but again as jeff said every song u play is different some have lots of bass some don't.. so i learn his trick "active gaining" turn sub volume up on rock songs down on rebassed or heavy bass songs.. check amp every once in a while for over heating.. funny/good thing about my amp when it clips it cuts out for like 1 second, so i know where it does that at so i don't turn it that loud..

thank you for this. I try test this out
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[Hertz Mafia]

Please don’t go full tilt for 5mins then feel if the amps warm. Clipping will kill woofers faster then 5mins. That’s like the dumbest shlt I ever heard

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

the test is not to go full tilt lmao. Its to slowly go up in gain until you feel the equipment get stressed in any kind of way mainly heat and distortion. Also the other rule he forgot to mention is if it stops getting louder, you need to go back down a few notches because you are past clipping at that point.

 

[BOOMINGRANDPA 5,000+ posts]

Please don’t go full tilt for 5mins then feel if the amps warm. Clipping will kill woofers faster then 5mins. That’s like the dumbest shlt I ever heard

he's saying he's not pushing hard at all., so u play at decent volume (loud not stupid) then check amp.. not saying turn everything to 100..

 

[Mayhem]

I don't know about you guys but I can hear it as soon as my sub gets clipped a signal

 

[DaveT 10+ year member]

the test is not to go full tilt lmao. Its to slowly go up in gain until you feel the equipment get stressed in any kind of way mainly heat and distortion. Also the other rule he forgot to mention is if it stops getting louder, you need to go back down a few notches because you are past clipping at that point.

Can’t use this method on the KAC-7204 that thing is a hot plate even taking it easy on it. Gotta love when you have active cooling fans and the thing feels like it’s ready to reflow it’s own solder all the time.

 

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

jeff always says bass hard 5 mins touch amp if it's warm u good., if it hot turn gain down., if barley warm u can turn gain up.. u can set with meter but again as jeff said every song u play is different some have lots of bass some don't.. so i learn his trick "active gaining" turn sub volume up on rock songs down on rebassed or heavy bass songs.. check amp every once in a while for over heating.. funny/good thing about my amp when it clips it cuts out for like 1 second, so i know where it does that at so i don't turn it that loud..

Put the crack pipe down.....

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Can’t use this method on the KAC-7204 that thing is a hot plate even taking it easy on it. Gotta love when you have active cooling fans and the thing feels like it’s ready to reflow it’s own solder all the time.

I'm surprised the amp still lives lol. Clipping just makes equipment build up heat faster. Heat is the actual cause of death in most of all car audio electronics. I ran other KAC amps on the past and they never had any heat issues.

 

[ekah]

he's saying he's not pushing hard at all., so u play at decent volume (loud not stupid) then check amp.. not saying turn everything to 100..

anyone can link what a distorted sub sounds like? YouTube?
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[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

anyone can link what a distorted sub sounds like? YouTube?
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doesnt work that way. microphones in video recordings cannot capture bass properly let alone nuances heard in distortion.

Do it this way, play a 50 hz tone, do a burp, go up in volume until full tilt then past full tilt and when you hear the frequency not sound like 50hz anymore, thats distortion. keep it under 5 or 7 second bursts though.

 

[DaveT 10+ year member]

I'm surprised the amp still lives lol. Clipping just makes equipment build up heat faster. Heat is the actual cause of death in most of all car audio electronics. I ran other KAC amps on the past and they never had any heat issues.

Yeah it works but it’s got some of most weak sauce amp guts I’ve ever seen in person. All the caps big enough to fit the temp rating is 105c or it probably wouldn’t have lasted as long as it did.
Edit to add pic

 

[BOOMINGRANDPA 5,000+ posts]

Put the crack pipe down.....

what he said he just agreed and don't see what u think is wrong with it ? using meter to set it with tone only works at that freq not on real music.. some tracks maybe louder or lower or lots less bass so then u could set it higher or lower easily we all have remote volume controls..

 

[Water Bear]

i know theres tools out there to tell me if im clipping if so what tools would i need if you could give me a list and prices or links that would be niceim using a cab1600 on a psi plat 2 and i have had the cab for about a year and the psi is maybe 6 months old but i feel im babying it to much because i blew my dd 1512 after i smelled it i thought it was something else next thing you know it sounds like broken glass

but then again i was over powering it by a lot but if theres tools or any sort of remedies with a dmm

is is simply when my voltage dips below 12v then thats at its peak power? just scared to turn the gains since its at about not even turned quarter way.

Your first option is an oscilloscope. That will show you when you're clipping with 100% certainty.

Another way to check your gains is to use a digital multi-meter (DMM). It's easier for you to just Google how this is done than it is for me to try to explain it. It would be a lot of typing. Long story short, power dissipated through a resister is V^2/R where V is the voltage and R is the resistance. Since power has units of Watts, basically you solve for V since you know the Watts and resistance, then set your amp gain so that you don't exceed that maximum voltage value. There's more to it, but you should read up on it for yourself.

This link looks correct, at a glance.

Edit: And now I feel a need to type more. Clipping is what happens when the amplified signal voltage reaches the maximum voltage the amplifier can supply. Link to some literature on the topic here. By setting our gains via DMM we ensure that that the maximum signal voltage, post-amplification, never equals that maximum number.