What is a crossover?

connor ibiza

Guest
Looking to start upgrading my sound, what are crossovers? Do you need them when fitting new speakers?
 

Chino_UK

Team Creatine
Jul 19, 2009
1,587
5
Cheadle, Cheshire
A crossover limits what freqencies of sound are sent to a speaker. Most commonly thye come with Component speakers where you have a Tweeter and a mid. Ideally, you only want high frequencies to the tweeter and mid frequencies to the mid, otherwise it would sound rubish and risk blowing a speaker.
Likewise, amps quite often have them built in. For example I use a low-pass filter on my amp to send only low frequencies to the sub, as you only want it producing low frequencies (bass), as again, it would sound rubbis and can damage the speaker.

Hope that helps you :)
 
Feb 26, 2009
5,275
1
Wolverhampton
Most bass speakers have a natural filter anyway, they're just too big to reproduce high pitched sounds. But it does improve the sound if you filter it out.

Tweeters and some mid range speakers must have a crossover, as both can be damaged by low notes. The tweeters especially.

I don't know whether your car already has components speakers, in which case you could reuse the standard crossovers?
 

connor ibiza

Guest
So if i bought some new speakers with crossovers, where would a place the crossover?
 
Feb 26, 2009
5,275
1
Wolverhampton
So if i bought some new speakers with crossovers, where would a place the crossover?

In the door should be fine, they're not usually very big so stuck to the inner panel will work ok. Then you can use the standard wiring to the crossover, and short lengths from the crossover to the speakers.

That's assuming you're putting both components in the door?
 

Jmaes5926

Active Member
Oct 6, 2009
38
2
Northampton
I fitted some speakers withcrossovers at the weekend, the best place to fit them is on the aluminium plate behind the door card, if you fit at the very bottom right (drivers side) and bottom (left) passnger side just above the large rivet with two small screws then the door card should fit back on fine like mine did.
 

connor ibiza

Guest
cheers for the help, just all a bit unsure lol. If my amp has a built in crossover i guess its pointless instaling the ones that come with the speakers too though? Or is it still worth doing
 
Feb 26, 2009
5,275
1
Wolverhampton
To use an amp based crossover, you need two pairs of wires going into the door. And that's not usually an easy task.

I think you might still be better sticking with the speaker crossovers in the door.
 

Cal91

1.4 Powerrr
No, you still need them crossovers unless you are bi-amping. (Which includes two separate amps for the tweeters and mid-range speakers.)

The built in crossovers on amps are usually only used for cutting out low freq for tweeters or high freq or mid-bass or even all freq's excluding sub-bass for powering a subwoofer.