Patent ID: 8712066

Claim:
An audio signal clip detector, comprising: an audio input for receiving the audio signal; a peak hold circuit, electrically associated with the audio input, for generating a peak reference signal indicative of the highest voltage of the audio signal received by the audio input; a differentiator circuit, electrically associated with the audio input, for differentiating and phase-lagging the audio signal received by the audio input to thereby produce a differentiated audio signal and for rectifying the differentiated audio signal to thereby produce a rectified differentiator signal, wherein the differentiator phase-lags the audio signal received by the audio input by between about 2 degrees and about 0 degrees; a comparator circuit, electrically associated with the peak hold circuit and the differentiator circuit, for comparing the rectified differentiator signal and the peak reference signal to thereby produce a clip detect signal indicative of whether the audio signal received by the audio input is clipped; and an indicator, responsive to the clip detect signal, for indicating whether the audio signal received at the audio input is clipped.