[August Karlstrom]

On 2016-04-13 23:29, Peter Wieck wrote:
On Wednesday, April 13, 2016 at 2:57:03 PM UTC-4, August Karlstrom
wrote:
How come power amplifiers for the consumer market typically never
include a clip indicator? Would such a feature have a negative
impact on the fidelity?


-- August

Many of the higher-end amps did have such indicators. But when
fidelity started taking a back seat to costs, and when two-channel
stereo essentially died in the consumer market, both conditions
mitigated against this feature.

I keep two HK amps with lead displays for power-out, right up to
clipping. Dynaco, McIntosh, SAE, Phase Linear and quite a few others
used either meters, LEDs, indicator lights and any of several other
means to convey clipping. Until a few years ago, I also had a Dynaco
ST416 with an LED display, and its older brother, the 400, had meters
as an option.

These days, I believe that Yamaha, Onkyo and a few others still offer
this feature.

Then there are more models with this feature than I thought.

You sometimes read discussions about "How many watts do I need." A clip
indicator is an honest way for an amplifier to say "I give up, you need
a more powerful amplifier" rather than trying to camouflage the problem
with technologies like soft clipping etc. If the music doesn't sound
right at higher volumes, how can you tell if it's clipping or if the
problem is elsewhere?


-- August