When you push a speaker beyond its capabilities (sometimes called overloading), its audio is clipped, causing distortion. This happens because there is not enough power being delivered to the amplifier. If the demands are pushed beyond that, the amplifier will “clip” the input signal. This can be because the volume is too high or the amplifier gain is not set correctly.
Why Loud Audio is Bad – Clipping Explained
When clipping occurs, the amplifier does not produce a smooth sine wave as with normal audio, but a rectangular and "clipped" waveform, resulting in sound distortion.
Similarly, in digital audio, there is a limit to how far an input sound can be reproduced. If the amplitude of a signal exceeds the limits of a digital system, the rest of it is thrown away. This is particularly bad in digital audio, as a lot of definition can be lost due to audio clipping.
Audio clipping can be hard, soft, or limiting. Hard clipping produces the most loudness, but also the most distortion and loss of bass. Soft (also called analog) clipping produces a smoother sound with some distortion. Limiting clipping distorts the least, but reduces loudness the most, resulting in a loss of punch.
