Any excess data is disregarded, which can result in digital clipping–a sine wave hitting its ceiling and becoming a square wave. This is because our system has run out of 1s and 0s to accurately convert our signal into digital information. When a signal reaches 0 dBFS (full-scale) on a meter, we’ve run out of headroom and potentially into digital clipping issues.
Just as when a loudspeaker is pushed beyond its physical limitations, a digital system can be overloaded at the input stage to the point of clipping. In the presence of an input signal that is, for instance, 10 dB higher than the speaker’s specified maximum, the soft-clip circuit kicks in to limit the signal and prevent clipping. The “soft-clip” circuit has been used in speakers since the ’80s, limiting the signal at the input stage. However, many speakers have built-in precautions to avoid clipping, such as circuits that act like limiters. Physically, if a loudspeaker remains in a clipping state for too long, there is potential for damage to occur due to overheating. If a loudspeaker is clipping, for example, the phenomenon can be aurally understood as distortion or break-up. A visual representation of a clipped sine wave.
