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screen of an amplifier "clipping." The amplifier should be outputting a clean Sine Wave , but instead the top and bottom of the waveform is cut off, or "clipped." This can be observed because the tops and bottoms of the wave, which should be rounded, are flat. The term "clipping" is used because the top and bottom of the waveform appear to visually have been "clipped" with a pair of Scissors or Shears .]] When an amplifier is asked to create a signal greater than its maximum capacity, it will amplify the signal only up to its maximum capacity, at which point the signal will be amplified no further. As the signal simply "cuts" or "clips" at the maximum capacity of the amplifier, the signal is said to be "clipped." The extra signal which is beyond the capability of the amplifier is simply cut off, resulting in a fixed signal. Note that this fixed signal suffers from other forms of distortion, such as Total Harmonic Distortion . All amplifiers will clip at some point. In High Fidelity systems, amplifier clipping is dangerous in that the distortion caused by clipping introduces additional Frequency components of the signal which may overpower the Loudspeaker , more specifically, the Tweeter . Some Audiophiles believe that the clipping behavior of Vacuum Tubes is superior to that of Transistors , in that vacuum tubes clip more gradually than transistors, resulting in harmonic distortion that is claimed to be less objectionable. Many Electric Guitar Players intentionally overdrive their Guitar Amplifier s to cause clipping in order to get a desired sound. See Guitar Distortion . Amplifiers with vacuum tubes are often considered to have a better sound. In Digital Signal Processing , clipping occurs when the signal is restricted by the range of a chosen representation. For example in a system using 16-bit Signed integers, 32767 is the largest positive value that can be represented, and if during processing the amplitude of the signal is doubled, Sample values of 32000 should become 64000, but instead they are truncated to the maximum, 32767. Clipping is preferable to the alternative in digital systems — wrapping occurs if the digital hardware is allowed to " Overflow ", ignoring the Most Significant Bit s of the magnitude, and sometimes even the sign of the sample value, resulting in terrible distortion of the signal. SEE ALSO |
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