2-way speakers: 2-way speakers include a midrange woofer and an additional built-in tweeter to bring life into all higher frequencies.

3-way speakers: 3-way speakers include a midrange woofer, and 2 built-in tweeters.

4-way speakers: 4-way speakers include a midrange woofer and 3 built-in tweeters.

The more tweeters car speakers have, the wider range of frequencies will be heard. This will bring out the fullest amount of high frequency detail that your music has to offer.

Component Speakers: Component speaker systems have separate midrange woofers, tweeters and an external crossover which allow for various installation set-ups for better acoustic sound imaging. Component speakers usually have 2 speakers, but can have up to 4, each connected to the external crossover network. The crossover sends the appropriate frequencies to each speaker. In other words, the low frequencies are not trying to be played by the high frequency tweeter.

Because each speaker is separate, they can be mounted almost anywhere inside the vehicle. The midrange woofer and tweeter should be within 12 inches of each other. Most installations consist of the midrange woofer in the lower half of the door, where the older speaker was, and the tweeter is in the upper half or the A-Pillar running along side the windshield.

Component speakers allow you to create a "point and shoot" effect. This means you can place the tweeter in a position to allow it to point directly towards your ears. All high frequencies will never again go unnoticed. Do not position your tweeter too far away from the midrange woofer as all frequencies should be reaching your ear at the same time.

Supply Enough Watts
Even if you have a higher powered in-dash receiver, it may not supply enough power to allow your upgraded car speakers to perform their best, especially at higher volumes.

As the volume is increased, your speakers are "begging" for more watts that they were designed to handle. Because of this, the in-dash receiver is working extra hard to give as much power to each speaker, but is failing. At the same time, the sound signal becomes distorted and is heard through the speakers. At this point, the volume should be turned down until all distortion is no longer existent.

The only way to remove this distortion is by adding a 2-channel or 4-channel amplifier, depending on how many speakers you're using. This will provide the needed power your car speakers are looking for. Because the sound signal is powerful, and also clean, very little or no distortion will be heard at all volumes.

Do Not Overpower
After you decide which car speakers you want, be sure to match them with an amplifier that supplies a similar RMS output per channel to each of the car speaker's RMS input. For example: If a pair of speakers handle 50 watts RMS each, use a 2-channel amplifier that supplies 50 watts RMS per channel. Overpowering your speakers will not only cause distortion, warped and melted parts over time, but will eventually "blow" or ruin the speakers.

Go back to Car Audio.

Or, learn more about:
Car CD Players
Car Amplifiers
Car Subwoofers