What does clipping mean? (1 Viewer)

[Antonio_B]

Hi all,how are you?

I would like to know what does clipping mean?
For example when you say my subwoofer or my speakers clipped twice.

Thanks a bundle in advance!!!
Later.

Antonio

 

[BrianWoerndle]

Clipping has to do with amplifiers, not speakers, but it affects speakers.

The basics:

When an amp does not have enough power to play at the desired level, it clips part of the sound wave off. That causes a very hard type of distortion is sent to the speakers, which can cause a lot of damage.

Now read a very good article with nice pictures for more details:

http://www.jblpro.com/pub/technote/lowpower.pdf

 

[Myo K]

http://www.audiovideo101.com/dictionary/clipping.asp

http://www.rane.com/note128.html

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Simply stated:

When you Drive any amplifier past it's linear amplification
range it takes a sine wave and clips the top of the wave off
turning it into a more square wave.

Speakers (especialy Tweeters) can not reproduce square waves
very well. And thus when they try to reproduce a clipped
square wave they get damaged (the tweeter is the one that
usually fries since it's the most delicate).