Well, you are now trying to know about Crossover vs Equalizer, it means you just don’t want a good audio system integrated by amplifiers, you desire for more exquisite sound quality. But it is widely spread that both crossover and equalizer are the same thing and have the same responsibilities to play in car audio systems. We are ensuring you here, they are not the same and don’t have the same responsibility.
Here, we will clarify the main difference between crossover and equalizer audio controlling systems. Also for your assistance, a product review for both of them will be here and let you know the features, advantages and limitations they may have. So sit tight and keep your attention here.
Contents
Why Do You Require Crossovers?
Why does someone need to the crossover or equalizer for the car audio? Well, to understand the proper answer, firstly you must have a complete idea about both crossover and equalizer? And how does it work?
What Is Crossover
Crossover is an electronic device that converts a single audio signal into two or more frequencies. Humans have a range of hearing 20Hz to 20000Hz. The music we listen from speakers are known as high frequency bands and the sound we get from subs are known as low frequency sound. A crossover sets a filtration system of audio frequency output, so that either high frequency or low frequency can pass through the crossover.
For example, if your car audio system has dedicated amplifiers for both subwoofers and speakers, and you don’t want to listen to any high frequency sound from the subwoofer because it doesn’t sound good and damage the subwoofer too in the long run. In that case, you must set the low pass filter of the crossover, suppose you set it 50Hz. It means anything above that 50Hz frequency will not pass through the crossover. And the subwoofer will only play the low frequency sounds.
Same goes for high pass filters. If you set the high pass value to 60Hz, it won’t pass any low frequency sound to speakers and the speakers will not play the beats and sounds that should be played on only the subwoofer.
Types of Crossover
There are two different crossovers available, passive and active. The passive one doesn’t require power and has limited control on other features like volume, frequency range. Passive crossover takes already amplified audio frequencies.
Active crossover requires an additional power source and works with non-amplified signals. It even gives extra privileges by allowing the volume control over each frequency band. Active crossover keeps your focus on the frequencies you must boost.
So that’s the idea of both active vs passive crossover in any car audio, definitely the active crossover sounds better in all terms, it’s just a little tough to install and needs a bit of planning.
What Is Equalizer?
Yeah equalizer even works with frequencies, but it is much more than bass sound and speaker sound. An equalizer works on specific frequencies to make the specific changes in the frequencies like you may want to improve the guitar, voice or other instrumental sound, in that case equalizer plays the vital role. These sounds need to be adjusted because some factors go bad, like noise on the road, wrong placement of the speakers etc.
Definitely EQ doesn’t work easily like crossover; you must set the values for specific frequencies while listening to music and keeping in mind your speakers efficiency. Also if you try to improve the wrong frequency and try to apply full gain on that specific frequency, it may cause distortion. So working with Equalizer is not that easy, it takes time to understand.
Types of Equalizer
There are many types of equalizers, but for car audio, the parametric and graphic equalizer. The parametric equalizer is the most common. It helps to adjust frequency bands very finely and with highest precision. And graphic equalizer represents the frequencies graphically different brand’s equalizer supports with different sliders like sub-bass, mid-range, bass, high range, low range etc. But a graphical equalizer makes changes on neighbor frequencies if you change a specific frequency.
Crossover vs Equalizer: Which Is the Best?
Well the main difference between Crossover vs Equalizer is, crossover works on eliminating frequencies and helps to get the sub and speakers the frequencies they require. In contrast, an equalizer, works on your sound listening taste and according to the surroundings. It can focus on specific frequencies and make that more listenable among many frequencies.
If you are planning to install a car audio system by doing proper planning, and your subwoofer, speakers and amplifiers are decent enough, then probably crossover is good. But we suggest everyone to have a crossover. But for an equalizer, as it requires more time to understand, if you don’t want so much preciseness, then you should stick with crossover.
Ideal Crossover for Car Audio: Clarion Mcd360
Clarion MCD360 6 channel is one of the excellent crossover audio systems. It works much better for mids and highs than what comes in an amp for mids and highs. However this crossover doesn’t come with a low-pass filter or subsonic filter, so you can’t set frequency range for subwoofers.
Features at a Glance
- It is a 6 channel and 5 v RCA crossover device.
- Clarion 360 helps to equalize the subwoofer frequencies.
- It has high-pass crossover control, eliminates all the low frequencies from mids and speakers.
Best Equalizer for Car Audio: Rockville R7EQ 1/2 Din 7 Band Car Audio Equalizer
The great head unit, a very chunky amplifier, quality speakers and subwoofers may sound so good only for a few songs; any changes in musical genre will make you understand why you need a quality equalizer too. The Rockville R7EQ comes with 7 adjustable bands to equalize and offers a crossover roll-off 12 dB/octave.
Features at a Glance
- This equalizer is good for speakers, mids, highs and subwoofers. Adjustable sub frequency range is 40Hz to 250Hz.
- Built-in crossover, sub level control and frequency control makes it both a crossover for subwoofer and equalizer.
- Causes very low distortion.
Conclusion
Both crossover and equalizer helps you to have a clear and distortionless sound. But nowadays, most equalizers are coming with crossover functions, but they cost much more. So if you have your budget that high, go for an equalizer with frequency crossover feature. Otherwise, we suggest you have your crossover first for separating the frequency for subwoofer and speakers.
