Type
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Broadband speakers. The simplest type of acoustics: one speaker is used to reproduce the entire frequency range. The advantages of such speakers are simplicity of design (as a result, low cost) and ease of installation. On the other hand, the sound quality of full range speakers is significantly lower than that of dedicated speakers (see below).
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Component speakers. The most advanced type of car speaker: it has separate speakers for each frequency band (see "Number of bands"), which allows you to customize the sound of each speaker as you wish and provide high sound quality. If the latter is the main factor for you when choosing car audio, you should pay attention to component speakers. However such systems are not cheap, and their installation can be quite complicated due to the large number of speakers.
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Coaxial speakers. A kind of compromise between component and full-range speakers: in such systems, small-sized tweeters and mid-range speakers are placed directly in front of the larger woofer cone, on the same axis with it. This design simplifies installation, reduces cost, and delivers better sound quality than full-range speakers. However this quality is still lower than that of component systems, and therefore “coaxials” are usually used either as rear speakers, or when for some reason (for example, due to cramped conditions) it is impossible to install a
...component speaker.
— Cabinet speaker. The speakers of such acoustic systems are housed in a separate cabinet(s). This greatly simplifies installation — you do not have to find speakers to fit existing niches or even cut these niches on purpose, as in other types of speakers. On the other hand, such acoustics take up more space in the cabin.
— Midrange speakers. As the name implies, such a speaker reproduces only the middle frequency band, "cutting off" the highest and lowest. Technically, it can be used as a separate speaker, but this is usually not justified. Therefore, in fact, mid-frequency acoustics are usually installed as part of a more advanced component-type system (see above).
— Twitter. A speaker designed to reproduce high frequencies. Due to specialization, it is not used separately, it is used in combination with a mid-frequency speaker to build component-type systems (see above).Number of bands
The number of separate frequency ranges into which the total frequency range reproduced by the speaker is divided. In this case, a separate speaker (or even several) is allocated for each range (band). the optimal speaker parameters for each band are different. Therefore, multi-band speakers are considered to provide better sound quality than full-range speakers. In modern multi-band car audio,
2(HF / LF) or
3(HF / MF / LF) bands are usually provided.
Rated power
Rated power of the acoustic system. Most often, the average (root mean square) sound power is indicated as rated.
The most obvious point related to this characteristic is the volume of sound: the more powerful the sound system, the louder the sound it can produce, all other things being equal. In addition, compatibility with an external amplifier depends on this indicator: its power should not exceed the power of the sound system, otherwise overloads and damage to the speakers are possible.
Frequency range
The total audio frequency range reproduced by all speaker speakers.
Obviously, this range should not be too narrow, so that the acoustics do not cut off the lower and/or upper frequency limits of the reproduced sound. At the same time, the human ear perceives sound within 16 Hz - 22 kHz, and it simply does not make sense to provide speakers with a wider frequency range. We also recall that in
mid-frequency acoustics and tweeters, reproducible frequencies are limited due to specialization (for more details, see "Type"). And the overall sound quality will depend not only on this indicator, but also on a number of other features.
Sensitivity
This parameter determines the volume of the sound of a particular speaker when a certain standard signal is fed to it. Typically, this is considered a 1 W signal with a frequency of 1000 Hz. The higher the sensitivity, the less the speaker is demanding on the power of the amplifier. So, it is believed that for acoustics connected directly to the car radio, the sensitivity should be 80 dB or more; for less sensitive systems it is recommended to use a separate amplifier.
Tweeter size
Size of the high-frequency speaker(s) included in the speaker design.
Size affects the amount of space required to install the speaker. However, high frequencies do not require large diffusers, so this dimensions is usually small and does not significantly affect the overall dimensions of the speaker system. The only exception is individual high-frequency tweeters (see "Type"), where the overall dimensions of the housing are directly related to the dimensions of the diffuser.
Midrange speaker diameter
The diameter of the midrange speaker(s) provided in the speaker. Midrange in this case may also mean a combined woofer/midrange speaker or an emitter of broadband acoustics (see "Type").
The size of the midrange speaker is often a key parameter that determines the overall dimensions of the acoustics and, accordingly, the requirements for its installation location. Exceptions can only be found among models with separate woofers (see below). But from the point of view of acoustics, a larger size allows you to achieve higher power and richer sound, including on bass.
