What does clipping sound like?


I have been wondering if the break up distortion I hear with my 60 watt tube amps is because I have insufficient power for my 91db 6 ohm minimal speakers. I do question if that rating of my speakers is correct.
When the music swells, I get break up sound. It is not on low notes or high volume. I do wonder how my speakers would perform with a lot more power. I have always thought that any speaker likes more power.
mglik
Clipping happens only at max output. So if it is not high volume then it is not clipping. If it happens when the music swells, that is a high amplitude signal in the source regardless of the amount of amplification. So this could be as simple as a dirty stylus and mistracking. Or overloading an input somewhere. Could be a lot of things. Without knowing more, pure guesswork.
Seems like I am pretty confirmed that the scratchy breaking up I hear on swells is clipping.
If you don't hear this at high volume it isn't the amps clipping. Could you describe what is meant by 'when the music swells'? That *sounds* like when its louder, but clearly from your description it isn't.


Does this occur on all inputs?
It sounds like distortion with any source  that gets worse as you turn up the volume knob rather than things getting louder.
+1 for preamp overload of low level signal input. It would be interesting to know if it occurs from a specific selected or all source inputs to the preamp.
If you play your system loud, it doesn't take long to eat up 60 watts. If you turn your system down, does it get better?