Speaker Info...

Speaker systems are very important because they are the units that actually reproduce the sound from electrical energy. When I buy speakers, I only want to get high end. Here is what you need to know, and what to look for:

First, let's start with the types of speakers that you'll encounter in the car audio world.

Woofer: A large speaker designed to reproduce the lower frequencies of the audio spectrum. Mid: A medium sized speaker designed to reproduce the middle frequencies of the audio spectrum. Tweeter: A small sized speaker designed to reproduce the highest frequencies of the audio spectrum.

There are other variations of these speakers available as well.

You've certainly heard of "subwoofers" that reproduce the lowest of the audio frequencies. Essentially, these are the same thing as woofers, just bigger and with more power handling. The result? Thunderous bass! Like the gods sent it themselves...

You might also encounter "midbass" drivers. These are similar to woofers, but are usually used to bring more bass to the front soundstage. Often times, they are connected to crossover networks.

Another type of speaker you might encounter is called a "supertweeter", and reproduces the highest frequencies in the audio spectrum.

Now, to shock you...

When you buy a "speaker", you are actually buying a speaker system. AKA, more than one thing working together to produce a result. Let's take a look at the types of speaker systems available...

TYPES OF SPEAKER SYSTEMS:

Basically, there are two types of speaker "systems" that exist.

1. "Coaxial", "three way", "full-range", etc.

These speaker systems are designed to fit into the factory speaker location in your vehicle. They are often referred to as a "speaker", but have more than one speaker, and will also contain a crossover. (coaxialspeak.jpg)

2. "Components", "Seperates"

These speaker systems essentially take everything from the above speaker system, and break it up into parts. (componentspeak.jpg)

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE, AND WHY SHOULD I CARE?

To restate the obvious, one speaker system has all of its components in one package, and the other speaker system has all of its components in seperate packages. Both speakers do the exact same thing, and work in the exact same way, BUT COMPONENT SYSTEMS ARE BETTER.