Sound question- is crossover necessary? (1 Viewer)

[LCWannabe]

I have installed a new head unit and am in the process of installing new speakers in all four doors. The speakers for the front doors are MB Quarts that came with a crossover. The driver door is done and sounds good. The passenger door has the new woofer installed and the old tweeter, and no crossover (temporary- I had to run the kids around and didn't have time to finish the install). That side sounds good as well- at least to me. This made me wonder- is the crossover necessary? Is there something in the factory amp the "splits" the sound between woofer and tweeter? If so, what happens when you tape off the tweeter wires and just wire the woofer wires into the crossover inputs? Is that the correct way to do this? I am obviously not an expert in this and would like to hear from some of you audiophiles out there. Thanks, Dan.

This shot shows the wiring for the new components with crossover:

 

[yoda-g3]

If I'm understanding this correctly and you are installing separates, then YES you do need. it.

The x-over filters out the mid-low frequencies to the tweeter. Without it, it will just be a matter of time before you blow the tweeter. (Unless all you ever listen to is talk radio at very low volume. )

FWIW - It also filters out the highs to the larger cone. Though high frequqncies to a smaller cone won't necessarily cause any damage it will cause more distortion and not sound as good as it could.

In short I wouldn't even consider leaving them out as an option.

 

[LCWannabe]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I'm not really considering leaving them out, but wondering how that filtering was done in the factory system. It came with seperate woofers and tweeters and no crossover. Also, would using the woofer wires for the input on the crossover be the correct way to hook it up? What about the factory wires that go to the tweeter? Just tape them off and the system should work as designed?

 

[offroadminivan]

I wondered the same thing...I ran the factory woofer wires to the crossovers of my Polk speakers, and left the plug empty for the factory tweeters. Seems to work, as the tweeters have a good high range sound.

 

[ShottsUZJ100]

Hard question to answer. Crossovers simply control frequency cut-off. This can be done at the driver OR at (inside) the electronics. Not sure any service manual will show that. To protect the tweeter is the top priority. The way to tell if the electronics control the low-cut is to connect a larger full-range driver to the tweeter's wire. Then listen.

*If you hear full-range sound then the tweeter-output from the amp does not cut the low freq. You will need to make sure the tweeter capacitor is in-line so that the lows get filtered out.

*If that full-range driver sounds like a tweeter (all highs) then you know the AMP provides the low-cut and therefore no capacitor is needed.

 

[Sandroad]

In the electrical wiring diagram book for my '04, the front door tweeter and the front door woofer are wired in parallel (+ to + and - to -). That tells me the 2 drivers are getting the same full range signal. In the thread below, there is a capacitor in the tweeter wiring that acts as a crossover, so the low frequencies that would damage the tweeter are filtered out. When you hook up a new component system, it looks like you should use the factory wiring that went to the factory front door woofer and run it to the new crossover, then to the new woofer and new tweeter from the appropriate crossover terminals. I have not taken the door apart myself or run any sound tests; I'm just going by the photos in the thread below and the factory wiring diagram.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/100-series-cruisers/405660-speaker-install-writeup.html

 

[LCWannabe]

^Awesome. That's exactly what I was wondering about. There IS a capacitor in line before the tweeter. Thank you so much. The Mud comes through again!

 

[ShottsUZJ100]

Excellent! And that's typical to have the cap at the tweeter.

 

[yoda-g3]

Good info!