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Crossover vs Equalizer

Crossover and equalizer are two of the advanced level car audio components.

It means while they’re not as critical as speakers or amp, and you’ won’t need them right at the beginning, they can upgrade your car sound from good to GREAT.

Many people think about crossovers and equalizers as two names for the same thing (like head unit and car stereo) but that’s not the case as they are two different devices.

Crossover vs Equalizer

Crossover

crossover

Before actually discussing the crossovers, we’ll have to discuss sound frequencies. Speakers generally produce sound frequencies between 20-20000 Hz as this is the range where we humans can hear sound.

Since a single speaker cannot cover this entire range, different speakers are designed to handle different frequencies.

For example, the subwoofer is a specialized speaker to produce low-range (bass) frequencies; while the tweeters and midrange drivers are better at producing high-level and midrange frequencies respectively.

This is where crossover comes in. It removes unwanted frequencies from an audio input signal and then sends the remaining part to relevant speakers.

This way subwoofers, midrange speakers, and tweeters receive the audio signal they are designed for.

In each crossover, there’s a high-pass filter and a low-pass filter.

While a high-pass filter blocks the lower frequencies and sends the high frequencies signals to the tweeter, the low-pass filter blocks the high frequencies and sends the bass-level notes to the subwoofer.

In a 3-way crossover, there’s a third filter called bandpass filter that filters the frequencies in between the low-pass and high-pass filters.

Without a crossover in place, your speakers can get damaged/blown by receiving a ‘wrong’ audio signal.

Crossovers come in two types: Active and Passive Crossover.

Passive crossovers don’t need any external power to filter the signal whereas active crossovers do require power and ground connection as they give you much more control and flexibility over the signal. To learn more, read this post on best car audio crossovers.

Equalizer

equalizer

Up next we have the car equalizer. It’s a device that lets you tweak sound way beyond the typical treble and bass settings.

Even if you have all of your car audio components in place, the sound you get might not be perfect for you. And you may want to do some fine-adjustments.

This is where car equalizers come into the picture. They allow you to make fine-tune your vehicle’s sound system according to your taste.

They come in two types:

Graphic Equalizer

A graphic equalizer shows you a graphical representation of different frequency bands. A frequency band is a particular region in the entire frequency range of the equalizer.

These equalizer features different sliders, depending on their model, with each responsible for controlling a fixed frequency range.

For example, a 5-band EQ will have five different sliders: one each for sub-bass, bass, midrange, upper-midrange, and treble. The same goes for a 10-band EQ which will have ten different sliders for fine-tuning different frequency ranges.

One important thing to note here is that making changes in one frequency range will have some effect on the neighbor frequency ranges too.

Parametric Equalizer

Parametric equalizers allow you even greater control by tweaking the bandwidth and centre point of each frequency bands.

By adjusting bandwidth, you can control the effect one frequency band can have on its neighbor bands. The wider a frequency bandwidth is, the more it will affect its neighbor bands.

In short, these EQs let you make fine adjustments in any particular frequency band – giving you maximum control.

Crossover vs Equalizer: Conclusion

So by now, you know the difference between a crossover and an equalizer. While both of these components fall into the ‘sound processor’ category, they work differently.

While crossover is used to block some frequencies from an audio signal and send remaining ones to a relevant speaker, the EQ customizes the frequency output of a car audio system.

Michael Brown is the founder of techyaudio.com, a website that provides car audio installation guides and tips. A self-taught car audio enthusiast, Michael has been installing and modifying car stereo systems for over 15 years.

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