Nad Soft Clipping Light Stays On
Hi all I am having problems with my NAD 326BEE amplifier. After a short time of being used it just switches to standby (power light goes from blue to red) for no. What is the 'soft clipping' switch for on my NAD 2200. Stay logged in. Audioholics Home Theater Forums.
I just got a new NAD T-763 receiver which sounds great. This past week I started playing cd's with the Paradigm studio 100 speakers and subwoofer. However, this weekend I started playing DVD's. My system also includes matching center and surrounds. When playing the movie Fugitive during the train crash and their is a tremedous explosion and the volume rises the receiver shuts off with a red light indicating Protection Mode.
You have to unplug the receiver and wait for a while before plugging it in for it to work again. Next movie I put on FINDING NEMO during the shark attack and their is a rise in volume during that scene, the receiver again shuts off and goes into protection mode. The dealer recommeded setting the speakers to 'small' and the db setting from 0 to 4. But the sound quality IMO lacks fullness and seems kind of thin when I changed it to those settings.
Soft Clipping is turned off on the receiver also. So whats wrong??.Does this receiver not have enough power to drive these speakers or is this some type of defect. Thanks for any help you can provide. Helter, I have heard of this with Studio 100s.
Apparently, they must have a fairly wicked low impedance thing going on with a lot of bass. NAD retuned the current protection so it would be more tolerant, but they still need to err on the safe side.
You might need to go for a separate amp/preamp combo. However, a good choice on the cheap and/or temporary side is to do a 2nd preset that has the 100s in 'small' and then readjust the sub to make it sound right with the sub volume setting in the menu. Then, when you select preset 1 you'll get the best sound for music and preset 2 will take some strain off the NAD amps. You could also just buy a separate stereo amp for the fronts and reassign the other two internal amps for other things.
I have an NAD 375BEE. Plenty of power (150 watts) so clipping shouldn't be an issue. Yet NAD's proprietary 'Soft Clipping' switch is on the back. What does this actually do?
Air Bag Warning Light Stays On
(Other than avoid clipping?) How does it change the signal? Does it perhaps change the signal in euphonic (i.e. Pleasant) ways?
I realize that I can answer this question subjectively/empirically for myself by turning 'Soft Clipping' on and seeing if A) I like it, B) I don't like it, or C) I can't tell the difference, but I'm still curious as to what is going on with the signal when this switch is flipped. SOFT CLIPPING: Enables NAD's proprietary Soft Clipping circuitry on all channels. At ON position, Soft Clipping gently limits the output of the C 375BEE to minimize audible distortion should the amplifier be over-driven.
Soft Clipping may simply be left ON at all times to reduce the likelihood of audible distortion from excessive volume settings. However, for critical listening and to preserve optimum dynamics, you may wish to defeat it by setting this switch to 'OFF' position. The SOFT CLIPPING indicator on the front panel will illuminate when the C 375BEE is in Soft Clipping mode. See also below the item about 'POWERDRIVE'. From the manual: 'Soft Clipping gently limits the output - to minimize audible distortion should the amplifier be over-driven. Soft Clipping may simply be left ON at all times to reduce the likelihood of audible distortion from excessive volume settings. However, for critical listening and to preserve optimum dynamics, you may wish to defeat it by setting this switch to 'OFF' position.'
I've always had mine 'OFF' - hard to imagine I'd ever need such 'excessive volume settings' in domestic conditions that there would be any need to apply Soft Clipping. Click to expand.OK, so this brings me back to my original question. How does it prevent amp clipping, if not by limiting the dynamics? What is the electronic process by which it does this? What other effects might that have on the signal (besides preventing clipping)? Might any of these other effects be actually euphonic, or are they all harmful?
Nad Soft Clipping
(I hope it's clear that I'm not questioning whether preventing clipping is beneficial; that seems like a given. I'm talking about what else Soft Clipping might be doing. What, actually, is happening to the signal when Soft Clipping does its work?). Click to expand. Ive heard it both ways, and honestly it never seemed to make any change.
From what I remember, it limits the high frequencies at high power levels to protect only the tweeter from frying. It isnt a dynamic compressor or limited to the entire sound range, just the highs. A relative had one, and we tried and tried, and honestly it never seemed to make a difference, even at high levels. Pokemon black and white 2 rom english zip. Im guessing its fairly unobtrusive and really only kicks in at levels that the amp or speakers would truly distort in the upper ranges.
FROM THE MANUAL The S.C. Circuit gently limits the output waveform and minimizes audible distoration when the amplifier is over driven.If your listening involves only relatively low peak power levels the circuit may be left off, but we recommend you leave it on. It works only in relation to the speakers responding to what the amp delivers. The soft clipping is useful only for Party modus or when you are drunk and may want to play a tune at crazy loud levels. At some point the soundwaves turn into hard shapes that fry tweeters and the soft clipping feature watches out that the amp does not reach levels where a sudden peak in dynamics on the record would cause such a sharp hard edged signal. With the 375 mighty power output this should not happen unless you want to use it for a party in a huge shopping mall or discotheque.
Abs Light Stays On
As long as you are under the 2 o'clock volume setting you can switch soft clipping OFF. If you hook up a square wave oscillator from a Moog synthesizer to an oscilloscope and reduce the cutoff frequency of the low pass filter, it slowly turns the square wave into a sine wave as the higher frequencies are removed, without changing the overall level of the signal. A solid state amplifier driven heavily into clipping has a similar sharp edge at the clipping point (tube circuits naturally avoid it and by nature clip more softly due to the way they conduct current). Circuits like those NAD uses (which were around long before they were) attempt to 'soften' that edge by using the 'knee' of conduction of one or more diodes at the point right before clipping would otherwise occur.
Here's a decent article for those more technically inclined I can't imagine I would ever hear the result of NAD's circuitry if it was operating correctly and I was not (or rarely) clipping the amp, but all sorts of people report hearing all sorts of things I don't think I ever would.