Frank, I'm a bit shocked that someone so focused on the small stuff would ever come to such a conclusion. You think transitory clipping is inaudible but you can hear a power cord?
Tim
Yes, because the key word in my previous post was "transitory", the actual clipping is a mere blip, a momentary glitch in the replay. There are 2 analogies to this: firstly, there is a lot of music out there that has clipping recorded as part of the track, I have one of Beethoven's Ninth, recorded by a highly respected organisation, with quite severe, momentary clipping in a number of places, and I have never picked the point of overload in replay; and also at one point looked at a track posted by Bruce, of what he considered to be high quality jazz: same story, there was clipping at 2 points. This is using Audacity, an easy to use software tool. So, clipping of the recording vs. clipping of the amplifier: there should be almost no difference in the perceived effect, IF the amp is engineered properly.
Secondly, scratched CDs clip a fair bit, as in they have a split second dropout of sound at a number of places. Does that get in the way of enjoying the sound of the album in an overall way?
The power cord thing is completely different, because the effect it has is constant, the slightly debilitating influence it casts on the system remains there throughout the track, it persists, on and on and on: the "distortion" it adds just grinds you down, because it never goes away. Much better a short, sharp pain than a persistent low level headache ...
Frank