I've heard the question asked many times before, 'Do I really
need a crossover?' Without wasting any time I quickly answer,
'Yes you do'. Whether it's a passive crossover or an active
crossover, your car audio system will never sound good without a
crossover. I want to make myself very clear here, so before you
get confused let's talk about what a car audio crossover is and
why you need one.
A crossover is a filtering device which limits the frequencies
that reach a speaker. It splits a music signal into separate
frequency ranges and sends them to speakers that are designed to
best reproduce each frequency range. For instance, only high
frequencies would be sent to your tweeters, midrange to your mid
range speakers, and lows to your subwoofer.
The passive crossover is very common. It's basically a capacitor
or coil installed on the speaker leads between amplifier and
speaker that stops certain frequencies from reaching a speaker.
It's relatively inexpensive and easy to install.
But for your car stereo system to perform better and be
efficient, you need an active crossover, also referred to as an
electronic crossover. It is installed between your head unit or
equalizer and your amplifiers. Your electronic crossover sends
the proper frequency ranges to each amplifier. Some people run
three separate amps: one for bass, one for mids and the other
for highs.
Active crossovers are almost infinitely adjustable. You can vary
the crossover points and adjust the level of separate speakers
to achieve the best overall sound in your vehicle.
If you're serious about sound you must have a car audio
crossover. Otherwise your system will sound terrible. Oh what a
mess it will be when your subwoofer and mid-range speakers
duplicate many of the same frequencies! How about when your
mid-range speaker attempts to put out high notes that your
tweeters are supposed to handle. Can you bear such grief? I
can't.
And this is just the beginning of your sorrow and pain. Since
low frequencies are being sent to your tweeters there will be
distortion. As a result of this distortion your tweeters will be
destroyed. Loud bass will eventually destroy your mid-range
speakers as well. Now you've got to start from scratch and buy a
new set of speakers, all because you started on the wrong
footing.
|
Categories 
