I recently went to the expense and trouble to upgrade pretty much everything in my entertainment system. My new Axioms are slated for arrival tommorrow thus leaving the purchase of an HDTV tuner for my new Sony HDTV.

I'm concerned because the Direct TV signal on several channels "clips". Basically the picture is periodically reduced to a digital salad and the audio becomes distorted such that it emits a high piercing clip. Direct TV isn't entirely helpful and insists that I should pay a technition to review the wiring etc. I've been waiting to address this issue as I am close to purchasing the HD dish and tuner.

Now that I will have new speakers, I'm somewhat concerned. How will this (clipping) affect my new axioms?

hit mute as fast as you can and hope for the best!

other than that, i doubt it will break you speakers, unless the volume is turned on very high, and then your speakers/amp do, in fact, clip.

I failed to mention that most of my home theatre is run through my receiver.

I'm trained now to avoid those 7-8 channels where it is a constant problem but occaisionally it happens on others as well. Does anyone else experience this with Direct TV???

My DishNetwork tuner does a very good job of "muting" the audio signal whenever it encounters reception problems. I guess the digital signal drops are more or less inevitable depending on the sky condition, but the tuner should NOT send out a loud audio noise. I think DirecTV should at the very least provide you with free phone-based trouble shooting sessions, like DishNetwork did several times for me in the past.

Even better, screw the satellite and cable subscriptions! I am going to install over-the-air DTV antenna and tuner soon. It's non-encrypted and free!!!

Obviously this noise isn't pleasant but I don't think it qualifies as amplifier clipping. You receiver will just amplify this awful sound. But unless the amp clips at that point (which a decent receiver shouldn't do), I don't think it will hurt the speakers.