Good Kenwood Audio Setup? Options

[Komail]

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This post has been edited by Komail: Sep 29, 2015 - 11:54 PM

[applejax]

It was already mentioned that a crossover basically splits your frequencies for your speakers; i.e., sends your lows to your sub, your mids to your midranges, and highs to your tweeters. We could have quite a discussion on crossovers themselves, but not now. We'll stick to the basics.



You can get crossovers pretty much in any component in your system. While you can get some amps with crossovers, my personal preference is to have them adjustable from the driver's seat. Granted this isn't always possible, but given the choice between one in an amp and one in a head unit, I'll typically choose the one in the head unit. Most head units will do this digitally, which presents some technical advantages in and of itself.



If you are looking at a newer head unit as you said, most newer head units (even cheap ones) will have a built-in crossover. The drawback is that you woni't have the flexibility in frequencies, phasing, or slopes that other devices (or more expensive head units) will give you.



If you want that flexibility, don't worry about it in the head unit, but get a seperate crossover. I didn't mention that earlier to keep things simple, but it is a good time to mention the option. You can pick up decent three-way crossovers (two highpass for front/rear, and a lowpass for sub) for under $50 in eBay all day long. Most of these crossovers will offer much more flexibility than one in a cheap head unit or one in an amp. Disadvantage is that it's one more thing in your signal path, and one more thing you have to install.