Car audio is normally made up of units that are employed in the basic sound systems installed by factories where cars and other vehicles are made. These systems normally have small amplifiers that are built in as parts of the system. These amplifiers are supposed to provide power for the speakers. Quite often, the stereo systems of cars use strong amplifiers that have separate head units. These units can provide sufficient power to your speakers and make sure that you are able to enjoy sound that is much better than the normal standard in terms of quality.
More on amplifiers:
As you may know by now, the amplifiers are built within the cars. They are used in original equipment manufacturer (OEM) sound systems as well alongwith speakers and head units. Amplifiers are one of the most-important components, which help provide volume and power to car tunes. As far as car music is concerned they play an important role as well. If you are not using amplifiers in your car’s sound system you can bet your bottom dollar that you will never get a high quality of sound. The amplifiers play a rather-important role in this regard.
What do the amplifiers do?
The amplifiers boost audio signals at low level. It is the head unit that produces the said signals and moves the speaker cones successfully. All this happens within the system and leads to the sound that you enjoy so much in your car especially when you are driving it. However, before the signal is amplified there is a need for it to be processed by a preamp or a preamplifier. The preamp takes the raw signals that are emanating from the head unit sources like the radio tuner and then it is sent to the amplifier as a low-level output.
What is the preamplifier made up of?
The preamplifier comprises bass, equalization tone controls, and treble. These come in handy as far as manipulating audio signal and adjusting the sound is concerned. These smaller instruments are part of a crossover circuit that divides the audio signal before feeding it to the amplifier in different frequencies. The crossover circuit is supposed to direct certain frequencies that are later on reproduced by using specialized speakers like tweeters and woofers. Two kinds of crossover are used in car audio systems. An active preamp component or crossover is capable of dividing the complete full-range signal. It can do so before amplification. Once this is done the crossover preamp can take care of specific speaker ranges.
Passive crossover:
In case of a passive crossover you would see that the system is accepting an audio signal after it has been amplified. It also puts off frequencies for specific speakers. Passive crossovers are normally there in two-way speakers and are placed on single frames. These speakers normally measure 8 inches by 9 inches and they have big midranges as well. The tweeters are small though. In this case the audio signals passes through the passive crossover circuit that is smaller.
