NST Audio Limiters Theory & Practice

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All NST audio processors feature two stages of limiter protection on all outputs – an RMS limiter designed to control sustained maximum output level (and so manage speaker thermal stress), and a Peak limiter, designed to prevent over-excursion (and so reduce mechanical failure).

NST Audio has created helpful PDF guides explaining how these limiters function and how to use them correctly. View more information below and download the free guides today.

RMS Limiter

High performance limiters are provided for each output with control over attack time, release time and threshold parameters. This level of control allows the user to balance the required subjective quality of the limiter against the driver protection requirements. Be aware that a limiter set incorrectly can sound worse than no limiter at all!

Peak Limiter

The main limitation with traditional dynamics control is the inability of the processing to react truly instantaneously to the signal. One of the most significant advantages of digital signal processing over analogue is the ability to delay the audio signal precisely and without extensive complex hardware. The entire domain of digital signal processing is based around the combination of delaying, multiplying, and accumulating numbers (representing samples of audio) to implement all the filters and dynamics processing we have come to expect today.

Limiters Are A Good Thing

Remember that the limiters only need to be set up once for your system and from then on they will protect against anyone either externally turning things up too much, or from excessive EQ adjustments. Correctly configured, they are a valuable tool in not only making the system sound better at all times, but also ensuring increased reliability of your amps and speakers.