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GunForHire · 05-02-2008, 03:40 PM

Sorry for the mini-techincal rant, but this old lie needs to be put to bed...

SO many people claim that a clipped signal kills speakers because it "sends DC" to the speaker which kills it. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!

A square wave is ais a summation of sine waves - pure and simple. Additionally, it does NOT have any components below the fundamental of the square wave!

Take a 40 Hz square wave - the LOWEST frequency component it will have is 40 Hz. And it will have frequency components ABOVE that point but NONE below.

Take a 40 Hz sine wave, and clip it. You add higher frequencies to it. THESE HIGHER FREQUENCIES are what contain the extra power. In fact, the average power of a sine wave is 1/2 its peak power (for example, assume you have a 50V peak signal into a 4 Ohm load - that is 50*50/4 = 625W peak, or 312.5W average). A square wave though - because of the higher harmonics - has an average power EQUAL to the peak power (fully clipped, that 50V sine wave would deliver 625W average).

So, to summarize - CLIPPING DOES NOT CREATE A DC COMPONENT - EVER!

OK, I feel better...

05-02-2008, 03:40 PM	#1 (permalink)
GunForHire Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Citizen of the World Posts: 16	Clipping does NOT create "DC"! Sorry for the mini-techincal rant, but this old lie needs to be put to bed... SO many people claim that a clipped signal kills speakers because it "sends DC" to the speaker which kills it. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH! A square wave is ais a summation of sine waves - pure and simple. Additionally, it does NOT have any components below the fundamental of the square wave! Take a 40 Hz square wave - the LOWEST frequency component it will have is 40 Hz. And it will have frequency components ABOVE that point but NONE below. Take a 40 Hz sine wave, and clip it. You add higher frequencies to it. THESE HIGHER FREQUENCIES are what contain the extra power. In fact, the average power of a sine wave is 1/2 its peak power (for example, assume you have a 50V peak signal into a 4 Ohm load - that is 50*50/4 = 625W peak, or 312.5W average). A square wave though - because of the higher harmonics - has an average power EQUAL to the peak power (fully clipped, that 50V sine wave would deliver 625W average). So, to summarize - CLIPPING DOES NOT CREATE A DC COMPONENT - EVER! OK, I feel better...