Quote Originally Posted by E4NASH View Post
What is the definition of clipping, when it begins to distort? Are you tuning for max amount of volume without clipping? In other words should this be done in an open field/water far away from civilization?


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An amplifier's job is to magnify the audio signal as a faithful replica of the incoming signal. Any amplifier has limits. Consider those limits as a fixed box with a definite ceiling and floor. When the signal is expanded beyond the boundaries of the fixed box, any portion of the signal exceeding the box is clipped off or flattened out. Now, the peaks are essentially missing. And that is distortion. The crest factor is reduced which means the music is compressed without the full dynamic contrast.
The signal changes form from one that is largely in transition to one that is more continuous. That creates a high risk of thermal induced speaker damage as the speaker is not given the opportunity to dissipate heat. An amplifier driven into clipping or compression begins to narrow in bandwidth. It can continue to put out more power but over a narrower range. An over-driven amplifier becomes increasingly inefficient consuming more power but with little additional power getting to the speakers.
So clipping not only sounds nasty but it has numerous byproducts. All of them are destructive.

David