Is this clipping?

Mapman, most modern pop recording suck! The classical recordings are not subjected to the same mass marketing recording engineering aberrations. People in the know are not mistaken! It's the recording, not the amplification. Even those with power to spare suffer through most modern pop recordings.

My speakers are 16 ohm, 97db sensitive, in a small room. The amp is also set for 16 ohm. The volume control on my preamp seldom gets past 11:00, so I wonder if the amp is really clipping.

Unsound, I agree with your comment about sustained high volume on some rock recordings. Somehow this overloads either the amp or the speakers, or both.

Mapman, I agree that modern pop/rock recordings are some of the toughest to get right.

Unsound,

My experience over the years has been that most all rock/pop recordings suffer if the system is underpowered or undersized, among other things. The ultimate quality of these compared to others on the grand scale of things doesn't matter.

Whatever their other issues on the grand scale, the newer louder pop/rock digital recordings out there are more challenging from a power perspective, not less. I think it just follows that louder requires more power to reproduce accurately, for better or for worse.

Modern rock pop along with perhaps big band and large scale classical are exactly the types of music I would expect a flea powered SET running single driver full range speakers to demonstrate limitations with, at least at realistic volumes, although this kind of setup should sound heavenly most of the rest of the time.

Play the drum intro to "Know Your Enemy" By Green Day for example. WHen the song starts and the drums hit, they should sound very real and knock you out of your seat. Other than that, the recording is acceptable for what it is, but nothing special by any stretch otherwise.

Mapman, the way new pop recordings are made, more often than not, leads to the lowering of volume, even in high powered systems, negating the very benefits of high power. These recordings are made to facilitate lesser systems that amongst other things, don't have the power to handle true dynamic contrasts.

Well, if the system is clipping as a result, the results will not be good, that is for sure!

Overdriving the speakers won't help either.

Both together is the double whammy.