Several people are the proud owners of BMW’s compact luxury car, the E36 or the E46. The E46 came out in coupe, convertible, hatchback, sedan, and even station wagon body styles. Although no longer in production, the E36 and E46 are superior cars that are a joy to drive. While you are driving, you will want to listen to something interesting, like music. The sound system in your BMW makes this possible. When it comes to your E36 audio system, including E36 speakers or E46 speakers, you’ll want to understand a bit about how speakers work, such as knowing the difference between passive and active crossover in speakers, to ensure you’ll achieve the best sound. of the audio system of your BMW.

Sound is produced by waves that occur due to changes in air pressure. Fast wave vibrations produce high-pitched sounds, while slower vibrations create low-pitched sounds. Inside your BMW’s speaker system are different types of drivers, which are designed to better accommodate certain types of sound frequencies. Woofers pick up bass sounds well, while tweeters are designed to easily produce high-pitched sounds. The midrange drivers are there to capture all the best sounds in the mid-frequency range. In order for each driver to do its specialized job, the frequency signal must first be divided into low, high, and midranges. The speaker crossover is what performs this vital function.

There are two types of crossover: passive and active. The passive crossover uses inductors and capacitors to divide sound frequencies into units that the drivers can handle. The crossover capacitors are connected to the tweeters and the crossover inductors are connected to the woofers. Both capacitors and inductors are connected to midrange drivers. Capacitors do a great job of driving sound frequencies that are above a certain range, and not so well of driving lower frequencies. Because the tweeter is designed to handle high frequencies, the capacitor feeds it with frequencies for which it is best designed. The opposite is true for the inductor. An inductor can better accommodate frequencies below a certain preset level, and those low frequencies are what the woofer is waiting for to produce those deep bass lines in your music you listen to. Because midrange signals will produce frequencies between which the inductor or capacitor could handle on its own, both are connected to a midrange driver to send it the signals it is designed to handle.

For those who want a little more ease of use and precision of exactly what frequencies will be sent to the components, active crossovers may be for you. Each controller comes with an amplifier, and these active devices break up the signals before they reach the amplifier. This allows you to personally adjust the frequency range you want to send to a particular driver. However, they are more expensive than passive systems.