Crossover Car Speaker: Understanding Functions, Types, and How It Works

Currently, the era has become increasingly sophisticated, with many advanced technologies embedded in various fields, including automotive. 

You may now be familiar with cars equipped with audio systems. 

In this system, the term crossover is known, which functions to divide frequencies. To clarify, let's take a look at the following review about car speaker crossovers.

Understanding Crossover in Car Speakers

In a car audio system, you will find a component known as crossover. 

This component plays an important role in the system, namely to determine the quality of the sound produced by the audio system. Crossover determines this sound quality by dividing the existing frequencies.

These frequencies are divided among the speakers in the vehicle, allowing you to listen to music, radio, and voice calls clearly while driving. 

So, if this crossover component is removed, you will find audio that is distorted instead of the clarity of sound as desired.

Read also: 4 Important Things to Consider for Cool Car Audio!

Function and How It Works

The crossover component functions to determine the sound quality produced by the audio system in the car, allowing you to enjoy clear sound while driving.

In terms of operation, crossover divides the working frequencies between two drivers. For example, in a car that has a speaker system with a 2 way type, the crossover will divide the sound frequencies between these two speaker components, namely tweeter and midbass. The crossover will cut the frequency at the tweeter at 4 kHz, with a slope of 12dB/octave.

Meanwhile, the frequency cut for the midbass will be done in the range of 2.5 to 3.5 kHz, to balance the tweeter component in the speaker. 

The function and operation of this car speaker crossover do not apply or are needed if your vehicle only uses a single sound speaker type. Because what is needed is just a high pass, to reduce the load.

Types of Crossover in Car Speakers

In general, there are two types of crossover in the audio system of four-wheeled vehicles, namely active crossover and passive crossover. 

Where the function and operation of each type can be slightly different from the general explanation regarding their functions and operations mentioned earlier.

For the active crossover type, its function is to divide the speaker frequencies before the audio signal is amplified by a power amplifier. 

So by using this type, you can easily adjust the sound frequencies of the audio system in the vehicle for each speaker. You can also determine when each speaker will sound.

You can adjust the timing of each sound output with the time alignment feature. 

However, the downside of the active car speaker crossover type is that you need to use more power amplifiers for each frequency range such as tweeter, midrange, and subwoofer.

Meanwhile, the passive crossover works by dividing the sound frequencies after the audio signal enters the power amplifier to be amplified. 

If this passive crossover type is made optimally, it is not impossible for the sound produced to be clearer than that of the active type system. However, you may find it difficult to adjust the time alignment.

Since modern vehicles use very sophisticated audio systems, the presence of this crossover component becomes important. 

Your driving experience will be even more enjoyable, accompanied by maximum clear sound from the audio system. Therefore, this component is also important to be well-maintained regularly.

Read also: Understanding Car Subwoofers, Types, and Tips for Choosing Them