In reading a review of the 1050, the reviewer mentioned he felt the 1050 didnt have much headroom and would clip fairly soon. What exactly is "headroom" and what is "clipping"?

I'll take an amateur crack at that.

Clipping is what happens when you overload
the amplifier and lose a considerable amount
of the signal as well as create distortion.
The phrase comes from what a sine wave looks like on an oscilliscope under those conditions. Instead of a symmetrical wavy line, you have a wavy line with flattened or "clipped" peaks.

Headroom usually refers to the amount of power or WATTs you have between your listening level and the peak abilities of the amplifier before you create distortion and/or clipping.

Most amplified music in home conditions is played at under 15 watts per channel unless you are listening to Molly Hatchet and ear rending levels. So..
If you are listening to Molly at 15 wpc, on a 1050 you have about 45 or so watts of headroom. Turn it up, I can't hear it!


eddyboy

[This message has been edited by eddyboy (edited July 17, 2002).]

Yeah...clipping is like overdriving the amp. You're calling on it to work harder than it was designed to. Not necessarily the amps fault...you may have inefficient, difficult to drive speakers (can anyone say Magnepan?)
Most people say that too little power will cause more damage to your speakers than too much, because clipping causes distortion, and that is death to speakers.
I think headroom is the ability to "rise to the occasion". If you're watching a movie at,say, reference level, and an explosion or dynamic sound is on the soundtrack then headroom would be the ability for that amp (or receiver) to effectively reproduce that level without clipping.

Most amps will be able to provide far more power than their rated wattage for brief periods of time without clipping. So that explosion could use more than 65 watts per channel as long as it isn't too long.

------------------
Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net

Thanks for the info guys!
e-dogg

Just to rebutt the reviewer. I don't have
bat ears or an oscilliscope, but I can play
Private Ryan or Gladiator on my 1050 at the threshold of pain without a hint of distortion or clipping. The sensitivity of my speakers is about 93dB.

Eddyboy