clipping volumn?

daniel_paul_

I have an Onkyo tx-sr601. How would I find out at what volume the reciever starts becoming dangerous to my RTi8's? I poked around Onkyo's site and did not find much. This usually is not a problem, but on a couple CD's (Billy Joel's Greatest Hits) I really have to crank it up to get reasonable volume.

Any help is apreciated

sorry, I ended up in the wrong forum.

bknauss

1. Throw in a reference CD with 0dB signals. Take some sort of signal mesauring device (oscope, computer based oscope, something like that) and crank up the volume till to start to see the top and/or bottom end of the sine wave start to flatten out. After that, go down a couple clicks. The reason for going down a couple clicks is hte distortion will start leaping up before you can actually see the sine wave start to clip.

2. Get an Audio Precision, send a 2Vrms signal into the receiver, and crank up the volume until you see the THD levels start going up.

Those are the two analytical ways to do it. You can always try to listen and see when the sound starts going to crap.

daniel_paul_

I was looking for a more "simple" answer. Thank you for the input. I will have to rely on personal discrestion.;)

F1nut

There is no set level really as different source material will have different peaks that may drive your receiver into clipping. Generally speaking, anything past halfway on the volume control is a good bet that you'll have clipping issues.

ward91

on a avr odB is usualy a safe level as that is where they rate them at .
i spoke to marantz and they said that my amps power ratings were almoast impossable to say as it depends on the input signal, speaker cables , and the sensitivity of a speaker, but he said that basicly that my amp amplifying the input signal by 80wrms 20hz to 20khz at 0.08%thd is somewhere between -5dB and 0dB on my display. im guesing this is the way most others work?

steveinaz

It's a complex question because of the varibles addressed by F1Nut. The volume knob "position" has little to do with when clipping occurs. If your music begins to sound compressed, distorted in anyway, or "strained" you're clipping the output.

One way to gauge it (ballpark) would be to figure out the maximum sound pressure level your system can put out by looking at the wattage rating and the efficiency of your speakers. For example, if you amp is rated @ 100 watts/rms per channel, and your speakers are 92dB efficient @ 1watt/1meter; you'd be looking at a maximum SPL of about 110dB output (at 1 meter) when you are close to approaching clipping (make sure your speakers can handle that maximum SPL). Use a SPL level meter to get an idea how loud that is, and adjust volume accordingly; remember, it takes a doubling of power to increase loudness by 3dB (threshold of audible difference). NOTE: There are a ton of varibles that come into play, these numbers are under controlled environment, perfect world conditions. It also assumes that you are using reputable equipment that is rated accurately and realistically:

1watt....92dB
2watt....95dB
4watt....98dB
8watt....101dB
16watt..104dB
32watt...107dB
64watt...110dB
128watt...113dB

ward91

interesting.

daniel_paul_

My reciever goes from 1-100. No negative settings. What sparked my question, and emphasizes F1nut's post, is that Billy joel sounds like crap at 60. But almost everything else can go above that without noticable distortion. I then became concerned that there was distortion and the volume was masking it. I guess the Billy Joel sucks and I should just trust my ears. Interesting read though. Thanks

schwarcw

Your Onkyo receiver volume knob will go from 0 to 100. I'm assuming that 100 might be a little above reference level. I'd keep it under 85 to ensure that you won't experience any clipping. Steve also has some good recommendations if you can lay your hands on an SPL meter.

dudeinaroom

listen 2 it if it sounds bad turn it down. Ward If I turned my avr up 0 it would have my speakers for lunch anything above -20 is a no no. Steve Antoher way to figure dbs is the factor of ten, To increase the volume by 10 db you need ten times the power. ie. speaker with 92 db/1 meter
1 watt 92db
10 watts 102 db
100 watts 112 db
(looks pretty close to your figures)

anyways my 2 cents as usually, and off topic, butt hey thats me

Later,
Ted