{"id":101166829,"date":"2022-11-24T11:24:31","date_gmt":"2022-11-24T09:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/electrosila.info\/how-to-cut-three-way-acoustics"},"modified":"2025-07-04T12:01:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T10:01:49","slug":"how-to-cut-three-way-acoustics","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/electrosila.info\/en\/how-to-cut-three-way-acoustics","title":{"rendered":"How to cut three-way acoustics?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We are immensely grateful to our subscribers who ask us questions about car audio every day. Sometimes your questions become the topic of an article or a new video. Because, as practice shows, many questions concern not just one specific person, but many of our clients and just car audio enthusiasts. <\/p>\n\n

One of the latest questions and comments on our YouTube channel concerns three-way acoustics.<\/p>\n\n

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I think there is no point in limiting ourselves to one specific set of speakers, so I will describe how we set up three-component acoustics in our studio. And we will talk about CHANNEL-BY-CHANNEL setup and, moreover, necessarily with the help of an audio processor. <\/p>\n\n

Once again – we take into account that you have installed three-way speakers in the standard places of your car, connected channel by channel from the amplifier (we recommend using a two-in-one device, when the audio processor has a built-in at least six-channel, and better 8-12 channel amplifier, although this again depends on expectations and budget). That is, we are not talking about a competition-level system – we are dealing with sound designed for daily listening by the car owner, individual sound made for a specific person. <\/p>\n\n

WHERE TO START SETTING UP THE THREE-STRIP<\/h2>\n\n

The first thing you need to do is study the specification of the speakers you are going to tune. Here is what the manufacturer of the Hertz MPK 163.3 tells us about the frequencies for each individual component that each individual component is ready to work: <\/p>\n\n

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Next, it is worth paying attention to the resonant frequency of each component:<\/p>\n\n

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We see that for the tweeter the resonant frequency is 1200Hz, for the midrange speaker 110Hz, for the woofer – 70Hz.<\/p>\n\n

MAKE BASIC SETTINGS IN THE PROCESSOR<\/h2>\n\n

Based on the specification, make basic settings in the processor – select the appropriate filter type for each component, cutoff frequency and cutoff steepness. In this case – for the woofer, this is a Lo-Pass filter with a frequency of 450 Hz and a cutoff steepness of 6 dB; for the midrange, this is a Band-Pass filter with a frequency of 450 Hz to 5.5 kHz and a cutoff steepness of 6 dB; for the tweeter, this is a Hi-Pass filter with a frequency of 5.5 kHz and a cutoff steepness of 12 dB. <\/p>\n\n

After you have set up the crossover on the processor, do not forget about the time delays and turn on your audio system for the first listening. If you think that by setting up each channel and each component according to the specification, you will get the sound picture you expected – you are wrong)) <\/p>\n\n

There are so many different factors that influence the sound, such as the acoustics of the interior, the location of the standard seats, the quality of the signal and that’s not all. <\/p>\n\n

CREATIVE PART<\/h2>\n\n

After the initial setup of the three-way acoustics in your car, the most interesting part begins – the creative one. Most likely, after the first switch-on, you did not hear the sound you dreamed of. But this does not mean that everything is lost – each of our audio systems after the first switch-on causes disgust or horror))) But after the creative stage, so to speak, licking the system, music sings in every car! <\/p>\n\n

What do we recommend doing? Ideally, it would be good to have tools for measuring the frequency response in your car, to see the weak points at each frequency and adjust the frequency cutoffs on the processor. If you do not have such a tool, do not be upset – each of us has the most accurate tool in any case. These are our ears. It is with them that we listen to music. Your music in your car. So sit down and listen to track after track and gradually change the cutoff frequencies, the steepness of the cutoff, sometimes the type of filter, sometimes the volume level of each individual channel, time delays, and so on. <\/p>\n\n

There is no single recipe for all cars. There is no single answer to the question “How to cut a three-way Hertz MPK 163.3, because the same speakers will sound different in different conditions. For each specific case, the final picture of frequency cuts for the same set of speakers can differ significantly. <\/p>\n\n

And another nuance – you may have a question whether you need an external processor or the one built into the radio is enough to set up and cut three-band acoustics. We have a video for this on our YouTube channel: <\/p>\n\n

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