Choosing the right car speakers

How your car audio system sounds is dependent on the car speakers you choose and where you place them. With such a wide variety of speakers available, you shouldn't have any trouble getting the perfect ones for your system if you know what to look for.

Often car manufacturers only use one speaker (well, 4 speakers, but they're all basic single function). The trouble with having basic car speakers is that they often won't produce the full range of sound you're likely wanting from your audio experience. Large speakers can't handle the higher frequencies and smaller speakers have trouble with the lower frequencies. This is because of the amount of air they need to move and how quickly the car speakers need to respond to input.

Since one-size-fits-all speakers are not the way to get exceptional audio, you'll want to select special speakers to handle the different frequencies. For higher frequencies, say above 2 kHz, a small speaker called a tweeter is ideal because it's lightweight and can instantly respond to input. Tweeters are generally about 1" or so, don't take much power to operate and are pretty efficient.

At the other end of the size/power/frequency scale is the woofer. This type of car speaker is much larger since it has to move a lot more air. Sizes range from 10-15" and even larger. Woofers use a lot more power to operate and handle low frequencies below 250 Hz. A subwoofer is a woofer that goes just below 100 Hz.

Midrange speakers handle the frequencies between the tweeters and woofers. You could continue with specialty speakers, but the midrange car speakers will be fine for most circumstances, plus it gets a lot more complicated splitting the signal for each speaker.

When selecting car speakers, there are some features to look for:

Power - it's important to have continuous power. Tweeters and midrange speakers don't really benefit by continuous power handling because they don't require much power. With woofers, though, you'll notice a big difference if the power handling is not adequate since they take much more power to work. You'll want to make sure you have a good pairing with your woofer and amp.

Sensitivity - lets you know how loud the sound will be at a given power input. For car speakers, this is a major spec. If the speaker is too insensitive, then it will take more power to work at a particular volume level as compared with a more sensitive speaker. Common sensitivity figures are between 85 dB and 95 dB at 1 watt at 1 meter. Keep all your speakers in that range and you shold have no trouble matching the output levels.

Physical Size - this is dependent on how much space you have to work with in your car. Tweeters are the smallest car speakers and easiest to find the space to mount them. However, the direction they face is critical. If they're not aimed directly at you, the tweeter won't deliver the sound properly. The midrange speakers should fit in the dash or the door, but you may have to customize the opening. For woofers, since it's a larger speaker, it takes a larger enclosure. If needed, you can find ones suited for smaller enclosures. Just be sure your trunk (or hatchback) has the space available to fit the woofer you choose.