In car stereo systems, passive crossovers are a practical option and often found built into the speakers. They utilize simple components such as capacitors and inductors to divide the sound based on different tones or frequencies.
With passive crossovers, their function is quite simple: they prevent certain sounds from reaching places where they shouldn’t. Thus, if there is a bass sound, it is sent to a woofer; if it is high-pitched, it is sent to a tweeter. The points at which these sounds are split cannot be changed after setup. However, one disadvantage of using passive crossovers is that they filter out already amplified frequencies, creating extra warmth and reducing the efficiency of the speakers. You’re more likely to find passive crossovers in standard systems that come with your vehicle or as upgrades to factory-installed car speakers because they offer an affordable way to enhance the sound of your music without much effort.
Active Crossovers Demystified – Active crossovers are those nifty devices that you put between your car stereo and the amplifier. They are different from passive ones because they use special components to split the sound into high, mid, and low frequencies before it reaches the speakers.
With active crossovers, you can play around a lot more with the settings. You can change where the sound splits (what’s called setting crossover points) and the speed at which it moves from one speaker to another (these are slopes). This means you can ensure that every part of your music sounds perfectly for what your speakers support and where you’re listening, based on your choice of amplification, in the real-world, real-world listening room. In equal power mode, this gives you a sense of the sonic differences between the speakers as they occur naturally. In equal volume mode, we make the volume of each speaker approximately the same. This allows for a more direct comparison of the subtle differences in loudness between the speakers.