My Amp Clips When I Have The Bass Up.

[HawkEye 0]

Hey all. I was just wondering if there was a way to prevent my amp from clipping when I turn the bass up. Also could someone explain exactly what clipping is on a amp? My amp is a AQ2200 my head unit is a Clarion CZ200 my subs are Alpine Type R 15's and I have tsunami 1/0 gauge wiring and all stock electrical. My car is a 1977 oldsmobile delta 88. Oh and I do have a extra battery and I have checked my voltage and it stays around 13.20 when bass hits. Any help is very much appreciated. Thank you.

[Duran 387]

How do you know it's clipping?

[HawkEye 0]

I know it's clipping from the bass knob. There is a red light that lights up.

[raolito1980 2]

Well that amp is 2x more power needed then the subs can handle. Actually more.

[Julian 641]

The clipping light is... ok at best.

[HawkEye 0]

Ok so will I damage anything if I let it clip and what exactly is clipping in a amp if it is clipping?

[Julian 641]

Ok so will I damage anything if I let it clip and what exactly is clipping in a amp if it is clipping?

Clipping... to the simplest way is an Un-perfect Sinewave when clipping occurs the peaks of the wave become squared.

[Shogen 325]

Kinda what Julian is saying... You can't really rely on that light 100%... You can check voltages of the amp(s) and impedance to see if its beyond what it should be... Also what raol said...

I think you should update your sig as well OP..... You're speaking of an AQ2200 and have an Autotek in your sig....

[HawkEye 0]

Ok cool. And I'll update my sig now. I got one more question. What is the lowest voltage that is considered safe?

Ps. Sorry for all the newb questions but I'm still trying to learn all this stuff =)

[skittlesRgood 3]

anything under 12v is a bad thing. i always try to stay above the batteries resting voltage.

as for clipping, your gains aren't set correctly. you need to turn the gain down or just dont turn up your remote knob so much. clipping is horrible for subs. the sub will move less and therefore cool itself less, while getting more heat from the amp putting out dirty power. it is the main reason for a blown sub.

[Duran 387]

Clipping lights make me lol.

[95Honda 486]

The sub could care less if you send it a clipped signal, it doesn't hurt anything....

That light may start blinking at the very onset of clipping, maybe an amount of 1% or so. This isn't audible and is inconcequencial to your subs.

As stated earlier, if your amplifer has the ability to produce more power than the speaker's RMS rating, than this is what will blow your sub.... So be careful.

If you don't want to see the clipping light, either turn down the volume somewhere or hide the bass knob...

[pipes 1]

Well the sub doesn't care what you send it as long as it can dissipate the heat generated by the current.. Can you hear a difference in the sound from when you have it turned down to when the dummy-light is telling you there's supposedly clipping? Listen for distortion, if you hear it distort turn it down. And like 95Honda said.. hide the knob and you won't know it's blinking.

[ShagggDiesel 25]

Could you be running your amp at too low of an impedance? Most amps will just go into protect and stay there if this is the case, or if it's a cheap amp, will just fry. Take a DMM to your terminals with the volume up to where the light comes on and see if you're getting a number below the amps stability.

[skittlesRgood 3]

The sub could care less if you send it a clipped signal, it doesn't hurt anything....

That light may start blinking at the very onset of clipping, maybe an amount of 1% or so. This isn't audible and is inconcequencial to your subs.

As stated earlier, if your amplifer has the ability to produce more power than the speaker's RMS rating, than this is what will blow your sub.... So be careful.

If you don't want to see the clipping light, either turn down the volume somewhere or hide the bass knob...

WHAT?? are you kidding me? lol the sub is THE thing that will get hurt by clipping. when you clip, the sub actually moves less and has a bit of a pause at each peak. so there is less air being forced through the voice coil and it overheats. just look at a sign wave, that wave is exactly what a speaker is doing. if there is a flat part, the speaker is holding at that point.

[Impious 1,476]

The sub could care less if you send it a clipped signal, it doesn't hurt anything....

That light may start blinking at the very onset of clipping, maybe an amount of 1% or so. This isn't audible and is inconcequencial to your subs.

As stated earlier, if your amplifer has the ability to produce more power than the speaker's RMS rating, than this is what will blow your sub.... So be careful.

If you don't want to see the clipping light, either turn down the volume somewhere or hide the bass knob...

WHAT?? are you kidding me? lol the sub is THE thing that will get hurt by clipping. when you clip, the sub actually moves less and has a bit of a pause at each peak. so there is less air being forced through the voice coil and it overheats. just look at a sign wave, that wave is exactly what a speaker is doing. if there is a flat part, the speaker is holding at that point.

The potential for damage is caused by the increased power being delivered to the driver by the amplifier, not because the subwoofer "stops" moving at the peaks. With a 30hz signal, the driver is still moving back and forth 30 times per second. Even if the driver "holds" at the peak of the signal, the heat dissipation would increase by about 1% (the average speaker wastes about 99% of it's input power as heat to begin with), then it would travel back in the opposite direction where it would be cooled again, then hold where it's heat dissipation increases by 1%, then it would travel back in the opposite direction and be cooled it. It would do this 30 times per second. That's still a significant amount of cooling going on and very minimal additional heat dissipation, to the point where it's inconsequential. The problem is power, not signal shape.

And I believe his point is that clipping doesn't damage speakers, excessive power as a result of clipping is what becomes damaging. If the clipped signal isn't clipped severely enough to overdrive the speaker, or the average power level of the clipped signal is within the thermal and mechanical limits of the driver.......then nothing is going to be damaged.

[hatrix 2]

The sub could care less if you send it a clipped signal, it doesn't hurt anything....

That light may start blinking at the very onset of clipping, maybe an amount of 1% or so. This isn't audible and is inconcequencial to your subs.

As stated earlier, if your amplifer has the ability to produce more power than the speaker's RMS rating, than this is what will blow your sub.... So be careful.

If you don't want to see the clipping light, either turn down the volume somewhere or hide the bass knob...

WHAT?? are you kidding me? lol the sub is THE thing that will get hurt by clipping. when you clip, the sub actually moves less and has a bit of a pause at each peak. so there is less air being forced through the voice coil and it overheats. just look at a sign wave, that wave is exactly what a speaker is doing. if there is a flat part, the speaker is holding at that point.

The potential for damage is caused by the increased power being delivered to the driver by the amplifier, not because the subwoofer "stops" moving at the peaks. With a 30hz signal, the driver is still moving back and forth 30 times per second. Even if the driver "holds" at the peak of the signal, the heat dissipation would increase by about 1% (the average speaker wastes about 99% of it's input power as heat to begin with), then it would travel back in the opposite direction where it would be cooled again, then hold where it's heat dissipation increases by 1%, then it would travel back in the opposite direction and be cooled it. It would do this 30 times per second. That's still a significant amount of cooling going on and very minimal additional heat dissipation, to the point where it's inconsequential. The problem is power, not signal shape.

And I believe his point is that clipping doesn't damage speakers, excessive power as a result of clipping is what becomes damaging. If the clipped signal isn't clipped severely enough to overdrive the speaker, or the average power level of the clipped signal is within the thermal and mechanical limits of the driver.......then nothing is going to be damaged.

What you said.

The signal itself isn't going to damage the speaker.

SkittlesRgood, you can read up on clipping here: My link

Read the whole thread and you will learn a thing or two about clipping. I know I did.

[Duran 387]

The sub could care less if you send it a clipped signal, it doesn't hurt anything....

That light may start blinking at the very onset of clipping, maybe an amount of 1% or so. This isn't audible and is inconcequencial to your subs.

As stated earlier, if your amplifer has the ability to produce more power than the speaker's RMS rating, than this is what will blow your sub.... So be careful.

If you don't want to see the clipping light, either turn down the volume somewhere or hide the bass knob...

WHAT?? are you kidding me? lol the sub is THE thing that will get hurt by clipping. when you clip, the sub actually moves less and has a bit of a pause at each peak. so there is less air being forced through the voice coil and it overheats. just look at a sign wave, that wave is exactly what a speaker is doing. if there is a flat part, the speaker is holding at that point.

95Honda is correct.