Clipping

[wayner86]

I tried to kill 2 topics in one thread so i'll start again here. Through an unfortunate incident, i believe my speakers and sub have "clipped". At least this is what i think. Without explaining the details about how this happened, the volume on my receiver was pressed a little hard and both my speakers and sub made a nasty popping sound (bottoming out i assume) and i was wondering if this may have caused any permanent damage to the drivers. The sub and speakers sound ok but im hesitant to press them too hard after this happened. My questions are: When speakers clip are they always damaged by it? Can they become slightly damaged leading to problems down the road (ie. sounding good now and crapping out in the near future)? Or if they sound ok are they fine, and i should just avoid such and incident like this happening again like the plague? Or should i have someone look at them?

Thanks,

Wayne

[emack27]

If you are really concerned about damage to your speakers this link will answer all your questions. http://www.bcae1.com/2ltlpwr.htm

[emack27]

In short, this is your answer:
If your speakers are capable of handling significantly more than your amplifier can produce, driving them with a clipped signal will not likely hurt them.
If the speakers can handle 3 or 4 times the power that your amplifier can produce, there's virtually no way to damage your speakers (no matter how clipped the signal is).
If your speakers are rated for the same power handling as your amplifier is capable of producing cleanly, driving them with a clipped signal for extended periods of time may cause speaker damage and/or premature failure.
If your speakers are rated for the same power handling as your amplifier is capable of producing cleanly, driving them with a square wave signal for extended periods of time will likely cause speaker damage.

[Glen B]

Through an unfortunate incident, i believe my speakers and sub have "clipped". At least this is what i think. Without explaining the details about how this happened, the volume on my receiver was pressed a little hard and both my speakers and sub made a nasty popping sound (bottoming out i assume) and i was wondering if this may have caused any permanent damage to the drivers. The sub and speakers sound ok but im hesitant to press them too hard after this happened. My questions are: When speakers clip are they always damaged by it?

Amplifiers clip. Speakers don't clip, they bottom out as you so rightly described.

[bfalls]

In short, this is your answer:
If your speakers are capable of handling significantly more than your amplifier can produce, driving them with a clipped signal will not likely hurt them.
If the speakers can handle 3 or 4 times the power that your amplifier can produce, there's virtually no way to damage your speakers (no matter how clipped the signal is).
If your speakers are rated for the same power handling as your amplifier is capable of producing cleanly, driving them with a clipped signal for extended periods of time may cause speaker damage and/or premature failure.
If your speakers are rated for the same power handling as your amplifier is capable of producing cleanly, driving them with a square wave signal for extended periods of time will likely cause speaker damage.

I'm not sure I understand your logic. If your amplifier is clipping, effectively chopping off the tops of the source waveforms, isn't this the same as square waves (flat on top, steep slopes)? Why make a distinction between the two?

[GMichael]

I tried to kill 2 topics in one thread so i'll start again here. Through an unfortunate incident, i believe my speakers and sub have "clipped". At least this is what i think. Without explaining the details about how this happened, the volume on my receiver was pressed a little hard and both my speakers and sub made a nasty popping sound (bottoming out i assume) and i was wondering if this may have caused any permanent damage to the drivers. The sub and speakers sound ok but im hesitant to press them too hard after this happened. My questions are: When speakers clip are they always damaged by it? Can they become slightly damaged leading to problems down the road (ie. sounding good now and crapping out in the near future)? Or if they sound ok are they fine, and i should just avoid such and incident like this happening again like the plague? Or should i have someone look at them?

Thanks,

Wayne

This is usually not what we call clipping. But in any case, if they sound OK, they are most likely fine. Just go easy on that volume knob from now on. You got lucky once. Next time you may not be.

[E-Stat]

IWhen speakers clip are they always damaged by it?

So long as the spiders and/or diaphragms are not damaged, you should be ok. When you gently push the woofers in, do they move freely without binding?

You probably just gave them a good stretch!

rw

[wayner86]

My amp (receiver) is supposedly capable of 130w/ch, and i believe my speakers have a suggested max input of 100w. They clearly bottomed out when they were driven hard for about a second or 2. Everything sounds fine, there isn't any binding when i push the woofers in, so hopefully all is fine. Thanks for the info guys.

Wayne

[emack27]

I'm not sure I understand your logic. If your amplifier is clipping, effectively chopping off the tops of the source waveforms, isn't this the same as square waves (flat on top, steep slopes)? Why make a distinction between the two?

No they're not the same. A clipped signal is "chopping off the tops of the waveforms" yes. But a sine wave is a square wave ie. severe clipping. A sine or square wave means that the signal output is clipped at all frequencies and all amplitudes.
In a clipped signal just the peaks are clipped or just the peaks of the higher amplitude waves are clipped.

[emack27]

I guess the only difference is the severity of the clipping.