Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

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RE: Clipping

Posted by Inmate51 on May 10, 2011 at 21:19:15:
Speakers generally fail because they're asked to move farther than they can (excursion-related stress), or because they're asked to dissipate more heat than they can (heat-related stress). Amplifier clipping falls into the second category. I wrote a paper on this very topic about 35 years ago.

When a waveform is clipped, it's not a loss of peak (not "peek") level, it's an addition of high frequency content. What does it take to make a sine wave look more like a square wave or a clipped sine wave? More high frequency content. As you add more high frequency content, you are asking the driver to dissipate more heat more quickly, and are giving it less of an opportunity to remain cool. Heat-related failure is the result, typically a burned voice coil, or maybe a melted adhesive. That's how clipping can damage your speakers.

hth