what is clipping and how do i avoid it

[heyhi1 10+ year member]

Reading some stuff on here and someone said they blew speakers due to clipping. From what i read looking it up it sounds confusing but will setting gains properly and setting crossover properly eliminate any chance of clipping?

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[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

Can't completely eliminate the chance. If your music source is garbage and full of clipping, that's what you'll get out.

Also, some music purposely has clipping in it.

 

[AAAAAAA 10+ year member]

Clipping in music is fine (coming form a song that's clipped), it won't harm speakers. The problem is clipping from the amp. Some clipping is ok and will happen.

Rule of thumb is if you are listening and it's loud and starts sounding like crap then it's clipping to much and you might start blowing some components of your system up.

When music starts to sound compressed or hollow

strange noises like static, screaches,pops, basically when the song no longer sounds the same so much

Those are usually clipping.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Clipping with mids and highs are easy and apparent to spot out.

When it comes to bass and subwoofers, most of the times you will not hear clipping or have any clue its happening unless you have a heavy clip in which it actually distorts the tone of bass.