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What low frequency amplifier clipping sounds like to me

Posted by Soundmind (A) on November 4, 2006 at 04:44:24

In Reply to: What does amplifier clipping sound like? posted by Richard BassNut Greene on November 2, 2006 at 14:17:39:

In experiments with a speaker system requiring a heavily equalized (electronically boosted) low frequency circuit in the preamp stage, clipping sounded exactly like the speaker bottoming out or hitting something. I had to remove the grill cloth to satisfy myself that it wasn't the cause of the very disagreeable and loud snapping sound created. This sound exactly coincided with the LED indicators on the amplifier illuminating their rightmost LEDs at 138 wpc. Reducing the volume resulted in this sound not being heard. So did inserting a low frequency filter. So did listening to material without deep bass sounds. There was no mistaking it for me and it is VERY audible. For this applicaton, a much more powerful amplifier will be required, I'd say at least 500 wpc, maybe more. Even at normal levels, this speaker often requires from 2 to 20 watts and because of its nature, it is almost exactly 8 ohms over most of its range so the LED VU meters are reasonably accurate in this case. It's also possible additional drivers will be necessary to achieve the desired sound levels at the lowest frequencies if the speaker reaches it limit when available amplifier power is no longer a factor.

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