Distortion: Clipping

Clipping is a type of distortion that occurs in an amplifier when you have the volume above the normal level. Clipping can result in damage to the tweeters in your speakers due to the excess in high frequency sound. For instance, if an amplifiers rated power is 100watts and you run it at, or close to full power, this could result in the amplifier clipping the signals. Many of the more expensive, high end amplifiers have a colume range that is actually less than the actual range of the amplifier, so you cannot actaully turn the volume up to the point where is clips.

Let me explain further, what clipping actually is in terms of wave notion of AC power. It is the amplifier is extensively increasing the voltage of the electrical signal. The top and the bottom of the sin wave generated by the AC output is cut off (clipped) which introduces additional frequency components in the signal, thus, increasing the load on the high range components of your speakers. You can actually damage speakers that have a higher power rating than the amplifier due to the amplifier clipping.


Here is a good image of a sin wave that has been clipped courtesy of Wikipeda.