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<blockquote data-quote="John Roberts" data-source="post: 47547" data-attributes="member: 126">Re: Amps with clip indicators that fire at 3dB below actual clip?Technically it&#039;s not a clip indicator if it indicates below clipping.&nbsp; In console design it&#039;s called a peak indicator and I recall back when I made serious recording consoles I would indicate 6dB before clipping or more. When I got into making lower cost Live SR mixers, that warning margin before clip grew smaller because customers in the value end of the market perceived such warnings as evidence the mixer had poor headroom. :-( Power amps OTOH don&#039;t generally use any lead or safety margin before actual clip with LEDs that provide either very precise true clip indications, or even lag a little to under-report clipping. FWIW intermittent transient clipping on relatively dynamic program material, with no hold-time to stretch out the LED illumination duration is not very apparent, so the occasional flash is not going to be very audible, but in my experience for most power amps, any clip light at all means actual clipping. JR</blockquote>

[QUOTE="John Roberts, post: 47547, member: 126"] Re: Amps with clip indicators that fire at 3dB below actual clip? Technically it's not a clip indicator if it indicates below clipping. In console design it's called a peak indicator and I recall back when I made serious recording consoles I would indicate 6dB before clipping or more. When I got into making lower cost Live SR mixers, that warning margin before clip grew smaller because customers in the value end of the market perceived such warnings as evidence the mixer had poor headroom. :-( Power amps OTOH don't generally use any lead or safety margin before actual clip with LEDs that provide either very precise true clip indications, or even lag a little to under-report clipping. FWIW intermittent transient clipping on relatively dynamic program material, with no hold-time to stretch out the LED illumination duration is not very apparent, so the occasional flash is not going to be very audible, but in my experience for most power amps, any clip light at all means actual clipping. JR [/QUOTE]

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