How are component speakers different from coaxial speakers?

Good music requires at least a decent sound. I would like the low fre­quen­cies (bass) to be deep and lit­er­al­ly phys­i­cal­ly pal­pa­ble, and the mids and highs to be envelop­ing, detailed and cre­at­ing a real­is­tic scene. And this is true for any acoustics, not just home. Motorists also want to enjoy good music.

And that is why car audio man­u­fac­tur­ers are con­stant­ly imple­ment­ing new tech­nolo­gies into the usu­al meth­ods of sound pro­duc­tion. Speak­ers are evolv­ing, becom­ing more and more per­fect and pleas­ing to the ear. Ana­log sig­nal trans­mis­sion tech­nolo­gies give way to dig­i­tal ones, and the usu­al acoustic sys­tems change their con­fig­u­ra­tion.

As a result, there are two main types of car speak­ers on the mar­ket now — com­po­nent speak­ers and coax­i­al speak­ers. Deter­min­ing which one is bet­ter to use is quite dif­fi­cult. And often, when replac­ing acoustics, car own­ers ask them­selves the ques­tion — how do com­po­nent speak­ers dif­fer from coax­i­al ones, in fact? In this arti­cle, we will ana­lyze both of these types and tell you which one to choose.

coaxial speakers

Let’s start the review with coax­i­al car acoustics, since it is char­ac­ter­ized by max­i­mum sim­plic­i­ty and wide dis­tri­b­u­tion. Most mid-range and high-end car man­u­fac­tur­ers install just such a sound sys­tem. In addi­tion to the above advan­tages, it is also char­ac­ter­ized by a low price, which is often deci­sive.

The acoustic design of a coax­i­al sys­tem implies a com­mon pool of low, medi­um and high fre­quen­cies. That is, one or more equiv­a­lent cables come out of the radio, simul­ta­ne­ous­ly trans­mit­ting a sig­nal. On them you can “pick up” at least a low-fre­quen­cy emit­ter, even a high-fre­quen­cy one.

It is thanks to this that the max­i­mum sim­plic­i­ty of design is achieved. But this design is the main dis­ad­van­tage of coax­i­al speak­ers. If you set them up incor­rect­ly, then instead of high-qual­i­ty sur­round sound, the out­put will be an incom­pre­hen­si­ble mish­mash in which “sub­woofers” try to repro­duce high sound, and “tweet­ers” try to repro­duce bass.

To pro­tect against this effect, mod­els with fre­quen­cy fil­ters are used. This small chip sep­a­rates the sig­nal enter­ing the speak­er and sep­a­rates unsuit­able lines from it. So, “tweet­ers” with a fre­quen­cy fil­ter repro­duce only high sounds, and with­out it — both high and low.

The fre­quen­cy fil­ter can be set in dif­fer­ent ways. Plac­ing it on each speak­er is just one option. It can also be built direct­ly into the car radio or placed sep­a­rate­ly — at the “root” of the sound sys­tem (that is, the sig­nal from the play­er enters it, is divid­ed and sent to sep­a­rate speak­ers).

But all these short­com­ings fade before the main advan­tage of coax­i­al speak­ers — ease of instal­la­tion. Often they are pro­duced for cer­tain car mod­els and are ide­al­ly sized for place­ment in spe­cial grooves on the inte­ri­or trim (for exam­ple, on plas­tic door inte­ri­or pan­els). That is why the replace­ment of acoustics is car­ried out as quick­ly as pos­si­ble and often with­out con­tact­ing ser­vice cen­ters, with your own hands.

Key advan­tages of coax­i­al speak­ers:

1. Ease of instal­la­tion. Speak­ers (acoustic heads) are often pro­duced for cer­tain car mod­els and there­fore are eas­i­ly mount­ed, includ­ing inde­pen­dent­ly and with­out con­tact­ing a ser­vice cen­ter;

2. Low price. Acoustics is inex­pen­sive, so its replace­ment will not hit your pock­et;

3. Ready acoustic sys­tems. No fur­ther con­fig­u­ra­tion is required, and many speak­ers sup­port plug-and-play instal­la­tion.

Key dis­ad­van­tages of coax­i­al speak­ers:

1. With­out a good fre­quen­cy fil­ter, the sound turns into an indis­tinct “por­ridge”. It is required to sep­a­rate the sig­nal. This can be done both on the speak­er or car radio itself, and by installing a sep­a­rate fre­quen­cy fil­ter;

2. Coax­i­al cable often suf­fers from “pick­up”. Elec­tro­mag­net­ic fields from some parts of the car, such as the alter­na­tor, inter­fere with the wire. You can get rid of this if you use shield­ed or “armored” coax­i­al wire.

In gen­er­al, coax­i­al speak­ers are a solu­tion for those who just want to lis­ten to music in the car with­out wor­ry­ing too much about the sound qual­i­ty. Due to the ease of instal­la­tion and low price, they are suit­able for self-replace­ment. And if you install a good fre­quen­cy fil­ter, then you will be able to achieve a more or less pleas­ant, sur­round sound.

Component columns

Com­po­nent speak­ers, as the name implies, are focused on con­nect­ing to a mul­ti-way speak­er sys­tem. True, in cars, as a rule, only two lanes are used. But this is already enough to cre­ate sur­round and detailed sound.

How­ev­er, it is not enough just to buy com­po­nent acoustics to enjoy a good stage and high sound detail. We’ll have to “tin­ker” with its instal­la­tion. As a rule, speak­ers need to be placed in cer­tain places in the car. Mid-fre­quen­cy acoustic heads are installed in the doors, high-fre­quen­cy “tweet­ers” — on the front or rear pil­lars, but you will have to tin­ker with the sub­woofer.

The main prob­lem with com­po­nent acoustics is that not all cars native­ly sup­port its instal­la­tion. You will have to cut the holes for the speak­ers your­self. And with a sub­woofer and do “con­jure”. So, often it is placed in the trunk, not only so that the whole area enjoys the rhyth­mic line of some drum and bass track at 7 am on Sun­day, but sim­ply because there was a place for it in the cab­in.

There­fore, installing com­po­nent speak­ers is not a task for an inde­pen­dent solu­tion. Typ­i­cal­ly, car own­ers turn to spe­cial detail­ing and car audio stu­dios, whose spe­cial­ists deter­mine how best to lay cables and where to place acoustic heads so that the dri­ver can enjoy detailed and sur­round sound.

Com­po­nent speak­ers also use an exter­nal fre­quen­cy split­ter. Only this is not a fil­ter, but a crossover. It gen­tly redi­rects the sig­nal with­out clip­ping it, which main­tains high detail in each of the fre­quen­cy bands.

This con­fig­u­ra­tion allows you to exper­i­ment to cre­ate exact­ly the sound stage that is ide­al for the car own­er. Do you want an assertive sound “like at a con­cert”? “Tweet­ers” are placed on the front pil­lars. Want an envelop­ing sound that helps you relax and con­cen­trate on the road? “Tweet­ers” are placed on the rear racks.

It should be not­ed that the use of com­po­nent acoustics in ultra-com­pact cars like Dae­woo Matiz or Smart ForT­wo is not jus­ti­fied. Due to the small size of the cab­in, the sounds will be dis­tort­ed, which will lead to defor­ma­tion of the stage. Yes, and some fre­quen­cies will be felt too high or too low.

Key ben­e­fits of com­po­nent speak­ers:

1. Deliv­ers rich, detailed and real­is­tic sound. With them, the scene does not turn into a “por­ridge”, you can hear every note. At the same time, the sound qual­i­ty does not depend on your favorite genre — both sym­pho­ny con­certs, and pop­u­lar music, and some dub­step or hard rock over­sat­u­rat­ed with low fre­quen­cies will equal­ly impress;

2. You can exper­i­ment with the stage, pro­vid­ing exact­ly the sur­round sound you want — from assertive to envelop­ing.

Key dis­ad­van­tages of com­po­nent speak­ers:

1. Dif­fi­cult to install. Most often, cars are not equipped with suit­able grooves for mount­ing speak­ers; you will have to cut them your­self. Yes, and the cables will have to be pulled under the inte­ri­or trim;

2. High price. Not only the speak­ers them­selves are expen­sive, but also play­back devices with a crossover that dis­trib­utes the sig­nal between the acoustic heads;

3. Not suit­able for instal­la­tion in ultra-com­pact vehi­cles. More pre­cise­ly, you can place them, but this will not be jus­ti­fied — in a small cab­in, fre­quen­cy aber­ra­tions will be observed.

Com­po­nent speak­ers are the solu­tion for those who need high qual­i­ty sound and are will­ing to pay for it. More­over, it is not only about mon­ey, but also about mak­ing irrepara­ble mod­i­fi­ca­tions to the design of the car. In addi­tion, to install them, it is rec­om­mend­ed to con­tact an auto detail­ing or car audio stu­dio.

Comparison of component speakers and coaxial

So, com­po­nent speak­ers are acoustics for those who are will­ing to pay for high-qual­i­ty sound, and coax­i­al speak­ers are a solu­tion for eco­nom­i­cal peo­ple. But their dif­fer­ences do not stop there.

If you want per­fect sound, then con­nect­ing com­po­nent speak­ers is a good solu­tion. But with the instal­la­tion of acoustics of this type, you will have to “get con­fused” — up to mak­ing irre­versible changes to the design of the car. If you need a quick and easy instal­la­tion (per­haps done by your­self at home), and also want to save mon­ey, then you can take coax­i­al speak­ers with a good fre­quen­cy fil­ter.