A crossover is a filtering device which limits the frequencies that pass through a speaker. It works by splitting a music signal into a few separate frequency ranges. It then sends them to speakers that are designed to best reproduce each frequency range. Sounds complicated, we know. But if you remember our tutorials on car audio subwoofers and tweeters, you can get the hand of a crossover. For instance, the crossover lets only high frequencies transmit to your tweeters, midrange to your mid range speakers, and lows to your subwoofer. So in a way, it’s like the crossing guard of the sound waves, making sure everyone gets where they need to go, safely.
There are two types of crossovers: passive and active.
The passive crossover is very commonly used. It's basically a capacitor or coil installed on the speaker leads, between amplifier and speaker that stops certain unwanted frequencies from reaching a speaker. It's popular probably because it’s relatively inexpensive and easy to install.
But for your car stereo system to be as efficient as possible and all in all, perform better, an active crossover (sometimes called an electric crossover) will be your best bet. It is installed between your equalizer and your amps and works by sending the proper frequency ranges to each amplifier. One big difference from passive crossovers, is that active crossovers are almost infinitely adjustable. You can vary the crossover points and adjust the level of separate speakers to achieve the best, most crisp overall sound in your car audio system.
0 comments:
Post a Comment