Ok, well I'm thinking that shouldn't clip, but I have an idea why Peace might show clipping on it's clipping meter, although I'm surprised you hear the clipping. So, in my EQ experience using Peace, I know I can give enough negative preamp to cover the maximum boost of the total EQ curve - ie no red peaks showing in the EqualiserAPO Analysis Panel, so theoretically this should not clip, but then I noticed in some tracks that the Peace clipping meter was turning red on some passages. By increasing the negative preamp (applying more negative preamp) stopped this from happening. After researching this & discussing this with members on here I found out that it was related to the phenomenon of intersample overs as well as the fact that at the time I was using a High Pass Filter on the bass to cut the low bass off in a bid to reduce bass distortion & increase overall clarity. The sharp High Pass Filter I was using was causing Phase Shift in the bass which effectively meant that different peaks in the bass were being time shifted so that occasionally different peaks would overlap and therefore magnify eachother - leading to digital clipping and that was being shown by the Peace clipping meter. I solved the problem (at the time) by using a less sharp High Pass Filter and also running an extra -2dB on the negative preamp in EqualiserAPO - using Orban Loudness Meter I worked out that pretty much all my music doesn't have intersample over peaks greater than 2dB, so that's why I chose to add an extra -2dB to account for both the intersample overs and the effect of the phase shift caused by the High Pass Filter. (At the moment I don't use any High Pass Filters, except for on my NAD HP50 headphone, and instead I use Peak Filters for boosting bass that have a natural roll off so therefore no need for a High Pass Filter.....I still use an extra -2dB to account for intersample overs though).
(Do you know if you DAC, it's a slightly unconventional one....do you know if it's doing anything "funky" to the digital signal when it's allowed to "run enhancements", seeing as when you turned off that option in the windows control panel you didn't get clipping?)
Thanks for your response!
I may not have explained it correctly (and I can take screenshots tomorrow if required), with both EqualiserAPO and peace installed but the big on/off switch on the top right-hand corner of peace switched to off (so in theory there should be no impact on the audio chain) I can hear clipping/distortion and see it on the meter down the bottom of Peace (it stays active).
I'm using the 'disable enhancements' button almost as if to completely 'unplug' EqualiserAPO/peace because it was still changing the audio path even when set peace was set to off.
So, there are 4 states:
1. EqualiserAPO/peace installed, EQ active (peace turned on);
2. EqualiserAPO/peace installed, EQ not active (peace turned off);
3. EqualiserAPO/peace installed and 'locked out' (turned off enhancements in windows sound control panel); and
4. EqualiserAPO/peace not installed.
Those states yield the following outputs:
State 1:
I can hear the EQ changes, there is some minor distortion/muddiness very rarely, most likely explained by what you've stated above as my preamp is set at -6dB and max gain is at +5dB.
State 2:
I can hear the standard tuning i.e. no EQ effect however I can hear clipping/distortion on the peaks of music with Spotify and USB volume at 100% (fairly sure this is independent of the physical volume on my headphone amp).
State 3:
Spotify at full volume, USB volume at 100%, no clipping/distortion.
State 4:
Same as state 3
In normal operation, i.e. state 4 above, disable enhancements has no effect as there are no software enhancements turned on in the PC and the hardware on the DAC is set for flat (tone controls off, eq off, D Bass off, 'spatial sound' off etc.).
Hope this helps!
Also please note this was not supposed to come across as rude or condescending, I just find it easier to convey when things are broken down into bullet points