If you have a speaker with only two individual speaker drivers in the box – a tweeter and a woofer – this means that the speaker will have a two-way crossover, which separates the incoming music into two signals: high frequencies for the tweeter, and low frequencies for the woofer. This distinction is pretty easy to understand. Digital crossovers can also be found in home theater receivers, for instance in providing a separate output to connect to a subwoofer.ĭigital crossovers, however, can only work in the digital realm, which means that if you are using a turntable, or any other analog music source like open reel or cassette tapes, you would need to convert that music to a digital signal before the crossover would work – complicated, and this means you’d lose that “analog sound” advantage. It is relatively easy, though, to program digital code which will divide a digital music signal into different frequencies, and this type of DSP (digital signal processing) crossover is already in use in some high end audiophile systems which use primarily, or exclusively, digital music sources. Electronic versus Digital Crossoversįor decades now, the most common type of crossover has used electronic components – mainly capacitors and inductors – to divide the different audio frequencies into different signals, and today this electronic, or analog, crossover is still by far the most common approach. As such, you don’t have to purchase anything separate, or even think about the crossover – just plug the speakers in and away you go.įor high end stereo or home theater systems, though, active crossovers allow the audiophile or videophile to use separate amplifiers for a subwoofer (the most common use), to fine tune the crossover frequencies and levels for differences in rooms, speakers and electronics, and to generally enjoy higher quality reproduction of music, movie soundtracks or any other playback sounds.Īctive crossovers are also more common in higher end car audio systems, where there are often different amplifiers and different speakers for high and low frequencies. This is largely due to the fact that they are already built into almost every speaker system. They can be expensive, though, require AC power, and have to be set up and configured properly.Īgain, passive crossovers are far more popular. Active crossovers go between a preamplifier and two or more amplifiers – before the amplifier – and passive crossovers instead receive the amplified signal as it comes into the speaker – after the amplifier.Īctive Crossovers can have strong advantages over passive crossovers, including better sound quality, greater flexibility and more adjustability. Crossovers can be divided into the following categories: Active versus Passive CrossoversĪn active crossover is often a separate component, while passive crossovers generally are built right into the speaker’s box. Let’s look in more detail at the different types of audio crossovers, how they differ and what they are used for. Not just home theater systems, either – many audiophile or good car stereo systems might also have a subwoofer and crossover. ![]() Another extremely popular crossover, which many people have without even realizing it, is the crossover which sends only deep bass music to their home theater’s subwoofer. There are different types of crossovers in use, although despite technological developments the most basic and oldest crossover design remains today by far the most popular and widely used – the good ol’ passive, in-speaker electronic crossover. What is a Crossover and Why Is It Important?Ī crossover is a very important part of any stereo or home theater system, and allows the music, dialog or other sounds to be reproduced more clearly and with much greater fidelity.Īgain, to state it as simply as possible, the crossover splits audio information (music, movie soundtrack, etc) into different signals, based on frequency, and sends those signals to the correct speaker driver – to the tweeter for high frequencies and the woofer for low frequencies. Watch a Video on What is a Speaker Crossover.How to Choose the best Crossover for You?.Types of Car Audio Crossovers and How they Work.What is a Crossover and Why Is It Important?.
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