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hateshino
| Posted: 11 March 2006 at 11:53pm
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"Their only real disadvantage is the harsh clipping sounds that occur
when the power amp is being driven beyond the clipping point."
this being said about solid state amps...
wheres the clipping point? is there a "higher" point to reach to
hit the clipping point of a 100watt solid state than a 50watt?
is there a general rule to kno what the clipping point it?
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squarepegs
| Posted: 18 March 2006 at 9:19pm
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the clipping point of any amplifier is the point at which the amp doesn't have any more "clean power" to give. An amplifier, if well made, can reproduce an exact version of it's input source, only "louder." however, there is a point at which the amp does not have enough power to reprodice the source without pushing too hard and clipping. This is all in lamens terms of course, theres a lot more to it than just this.
any ways, tube power amplifiers overdrive in a very natural way, lending a "warm" and natural sound when pushed to the limit. hence the preference for tube amps among most guitarist. That's why tube amps sound their warmest at high volumes, because the power section is overdriving, which only happens when the amp is pushed to the limit.
however, with solid state amps, and indeed any solid state device, they are not designed to be pushed more than a certain amount while still cleanly reproducing the original input source. This, for a guitar amp, would be the tone created by the pre-amp section. Once the power section is pushed past it's abilities the amp clips, but without nice warm tube power, it sounds really terrible, kind of like when you take a little boom box and turn it all the way up.
In the end, a tube amp works well to make a signal sound warm, and solid state amps are the best at a really clean reproduction of an original source.
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jamie84
| Posted: 20 March 2006 at 1:49am
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in an (sort of) unrelated note, when iggy remixed raw power, he purposely drove the levels to the point of clipping, or so i've heard.
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squarepegs
| Posted: 21 March 2006 at 5:01pm
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its possible, especially if he used analog (tape), instead of digital. back in the day before protools and whatnot, there was a certain art to overdriving while recording. it was called tape saturation, and it involved recording just above the level that a tape reel could take cleanly. If used well, the technique could render a really warm overall tone to a recording. many digital audio workstations (DAW's) come with a tape saturation simulator, for the soul purpose of replicating this old-school technique.
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squarepegs
| Posted: 21 March 2006 at 5:11pm
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oh, and about the original 100watt or 50 watt question. . .
there actually is little difference between the 2, as far as perceivable audio output (volume). the real difference is tube or solid state, for all the reasons I stated earlier.
some people believe that cutting the power of an amp in half will cut the volume in half. . .not true.
actually, volume is affected exponentially in relation to power. to cut a 100 watt amps volume in half, you would have to exponentially downsize to a 10 watt amp. The same works in reverse. in order to double the percieved volume from a 100 watt amp, you would have to upgrade to a 1000 watt monster. And being that the average power tube runs at 50-60 watts, for a tube amp you'd be looking at atleast 18 tubes for the power section alone. . .haha.
alright, now I'm just rambling, I know. hope this helps. -tate-
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GainesvilleBands.com Forum : Audiophiles Anonymous
Topic: clipping point?
