Clipping and how to tell when it's happening

[collegeaudio]

When playing audio from my laptop's 3.5mm jack to my receiver, there is a very large difference between low on-board volume and high volume. I'm worried that high internal amplification, in combination with amplification from the receiver, will cause clipping. When driving 5 speakers (Infinity 363's, 350, 152's), my iPod + Sony STR-DB940 struggled to reach much volume at all. I don't have an SPL meter or I'd give an exact measurement, but a 12x12x8 dorm room should not be a struggle to fill with sound. However, playing this same audio through my laptop at 70% plus my receiver at 70% produces a lot of volume. Yet I do not hear any distortion.

Is it safe to help out the receiver by providing more amplification in the laptop? My receiver is not the expensive part of this system and I would hate to damage these speakers at all.

 

[bikdav]

Without actually hearing the problem, I can only offer some of my past experiences. That "issue" might not be unusual. Different sources generate different volume levels. My laptop _ an HP G60 _ can really crank. Yet, if I plug in another source without adjusting the level control on the receiver, I'll get very different results depending on what I plug in. An old cassette "walkman" that I had distorted when pushed. I had to crank the amp up instead of the "walkman" to get things loud without distortion. My guess is that any distortion you are hearing is from the source and not the amplifier itself.