Hey I never really asked about crossovers and haven't gotten into stereos too much. What exactly do crossovers do, and how do they help? Thanks in advance.

 

Crossovers are used to permit only certain frequencies to go to certain speakers. E.g., you don't want high frequencies going to your subwoofer, because the sub can't produce high frequency sounds. Similarly, you don't want very low frequencies going to your tweeters.

Dave

 

To further add on and confuse; in crossovers there are two types. There are passive and active crossovers.

Active crossovers shunt the frequencies before the amplification, while passive; shunt the frequencies after the amplification.

For example, often times better component or separates speakers will come with a separate tweeter for high frequency and woofer for mid-range frequencies. They often come with a passive crossover box that the signal from the amplifier or high-powered radio/deck feeds into. Then the high frequencies of that signal are sent to the tweeter, (usually around 3.5kHz and up) and the low frequencies (in this case 3.5Khz and down) are sent to the woofer. This type of crossover can sometimes cause phasing /timing problems if they are not designed correctly, but generally cost considerably less than using active crossovers and dedicated amps.

An active crossover is often used in the multiple amplifiers application. The low level RCA or DIN signal from the radio is sent to the crossover, and then that sends specific frequencies to each dedicated amplifier. Such as the low frequency (80Hz and lower) to the sub woofer amp, the mid frequency (80-120Hz to 3khz) to the mid amp and the high amp would get all the high frequency (3khz and up). The advantage to this design is there is little phase/time shift to distort the signal and the cross over points is often very adjustable. Disadvantages include added cost and complexity.

 

for those of us that didnt understand that.... a crossover puts the boom in our bass, the ear shattering highs in our tweeters and just about every thing else into our mids. (of course you are still going to need amps.)they are pretty easy to install and well worth the money for the difference in sound you will get. you gotta love the sound of a radio that can go so loud your ears blead and still not detect a hint of distortion.