Speaker Question...

Let me start by saying that I am completely clueless about anything mobile audio related.
I have a 2014 Single Cab 4x4 Tacoma and I have been looking into replacing the door speakers with better ones. The truck obviously only has the 2 in the front doors.
Now to my question...I'm seeing "component speaker" sets that come with crossovers, so my question is, did my truck's factory system come with crossovers? And, if not, why do I need them??
Thanks for any help.

 

Factory tweeter that already has a cap in it to eliminate lower frequencies from playing out of it. A component set will come with a crossover to split highs and lows to the appropriate speaker.

 

A cross over is usually just a combination of high-pass and low-pass filters built specifically for a set of speakers. The high-pass filter (HPF) allows only the higher frequencies above the set filter point to pass to the tweeter. The low-pass filter (LPF) will send frequencies that are below the set filter point. There is another filter for component systems that have more than 2 speakers per crossover, but for our trucks, the stock locations only allow for a 2-way setup (without some modifications)...so no need to get into that.

In a 2-way system, where the HPF and LPF filters are set is called the crossover point.

With all that being said, our non-JBL systems do not have a crossover per se. As kwalton said, the tweeter has a cap on it which is basically a HPF and that's it. As far as I have been able to tell, there is no LPF which means that the 6x9 woofer is receiving the entire frequency spectrum. That's not entirely a bad thing, but it is making the woofer do unnecessary extra work that can cause distortion or make things sound muddy.

 

Just to add to it all, there are component speaker sets and there are coaxial speakers. The component speakers are all separate pieces (2 or more speakers and the crossover) and the coaxial is the same stuff, but all packed into one piece. Basically, they built a woofer, added tiny filters and tweeters, and put them all together so that it could fit into one speaker location. It's great when you're limited on space or don't have the time to install all of the pieces, but coax's will typically will sound inferior to a component set.

 

I went with a Kappa 639 I. The important issue here is it has a high sensitivity of 96 db. This means I could, and did keep, the factory head unit. If you go with a lower sensitivity say 87 db, you will end up replacing the head unit (or amp) with one of higher power so you can actually hear the speaker while driving.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I think I kinda understand. I have a set of JL Audio CW-650 component speakers and I guess I can get through the install. I feel so lost with this audio stuff.
Another question...if I have a (4 ohm)4 channel amp and I run 2 of the channels to the front speakers and bridge the other 2 to run an 8" sub, is it best for the sub to be 2 ohm or 4 ohm??
Thanks