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Propeller Head Plaza Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics. |
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Propeller Head Plaza Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics. |
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In Reply to: What does amplifier clipping sound like? posted by Richard BassNut Greene on November 2, 2006 at 14:17:39:
When an amp starts clipping, the clipped waves are basically square waves (actually badly-distorted square waves), hence harmonics to RF are added to the signal.Aurally, clipping makes the music "blast".... Live music, especially unamplified, hardly ever blasts. The distortion also makes the SPL levels seem louder than they actually are. Other symptoms of clippng are a loss of low-level resolution/inner detail, bloated bass, and accelerated listener fatigue from the added harmonic components.
With regard to subwoofers: If the subwoofer amplifier itself is clipping, where the crossover is active before the subwoofer amp, the distortion out of the subwoofer would be similar to that from a full-range speaker- There is nothing to filter the harmonics from the sub driver. (The sub itself wouldn't necessarily "reproduce" the harmonics like a full-range speaker, and the fundamental frequencies that are clipped would still be limited to below the crossover frequency. Such clipping could damage the driver.) But if the clipping occurs from an amp running full-range before a crossover, the harmonic components are then filtered from the subwoofer by the crossover- It would sound like merely "bloated bass."
Often, when an amp first starts to clip, the initial symptom is the "bass taking the rest of the music with it." I personally think bass linearity is the common denominator for most sonic problems in audio systems.
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Follow Ups
- Re: What does amplifier clipping sound like? - Todd Krieger 23:03:50 11/03/06 (0)
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