Re: Re: Re: Re: Stereo equipment poll


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Posted by Chuck(G) on April 13, 2001 at 15:44:29:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Stereo equipment poll posted by Brian Frederiksen on April 13, 2001 at 13:45:42:

Let's look at a hypothetical situation. Two amps, one that clips at, say, 10 volts into an 8 ohm load and one that clips at 50 into the same load. Drive both with the same program content and adjust the output so that the non-clipping levels of the content are the same. The non-clipping amp will actually blow out the speakers faster, since the one that clips essentially chops off the top of all of those sine (and other) waves. The one that doesn't clip will include the clipping parts in it's output, PLUS levels that the other amp clipped.

It could be that the natural reaction of some folks is to crank the gain up when the clipping starts; the smart ones turn it down.

Now, there are other factors that can come into play, such as linearity (clipping is an example of absolute non-linearity), high-frequencies produced by distortion products and so forth, but I believe what I've said represents the primary factors.

As Rick points out, there are high-order distortion products than can result in heating, but those would only apply to high-frequency tweeters, since a crossover filters out high-frequency components to the larger transducers.

The audiophile scene is full of urban legends; I know of a fellow who writes a column for Electronic Design who has had a standing challenge to any comer to tell the difference between a speaker cable with 50 splices in it and one with none. No takers after 3 years.


My take anyway,
Chuck "I don't believe in solid-silver speaker cable either" Guzis




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