What is clipping and distortion?

[hershon]

ALot of these threads keep refering to clipping. Can someone please tell me in laymans terms what clipping is. Also if I play CD's at moderately loud but not superloud volume in my apartment- i.e., no one will complain about the noise during normal hours, will I get any of the distortion and/or clipping that people seem to be talking about or does this only factor in at really loud volumes?

[N. Abstentia]

BASICALLY clipping means you're overdriving your amp, and it clips the peaks from the sound wave because it cannot produce the entire wave.

Distortion is what you hear when you overdrive your speaker. Try to make it do something beyond it's limits and you'll hear distorion.

Of course this is a very general description, there are many many levels and types of clipping and distortion.