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Anatomy of a Car Speaker

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based on 12 ratings

The Anatomy of an Amazing Car Speaker

Like many things in life, a speaker is only as good as the sum of its parts. While most speakers feature the same basic components, the materials a manufacturer uses, the quality of the construction, and the sophistication of the design can greatly impact how awesome a speaker sounds.

Focal is regarded as one of the best speaker companies in the industry when it comes to sound quality. Their upper-end K2 Power line includes advanced design elements and exotic materials that add up to speakers that deliver amazing audio detail. Here's a closer look at what makes them sound so good.

Inverted dome provides broad coverage

Details

Focal employs an inverted dome in the tweeter rather than a traditional dome-style. The inverted dome keeps its shape throughout the frequency range, even at high power, for unwavering accuracy. It also provides a more focused soundstage and even high-note dispersion, so you can hear the tweeter clearly from every seat in the car. Aramid, used in bulletproof vests due to its strength and light weight, makes the inverted dome easier to move, which ensures smoothness and accuracy of sound.

Small and powerful neodymium magnet

Details

Neodymium, a rare-earth metal, provides exceptional magnetic force. This powerful magnet drives the tweeter very well while keeping the movement of the voice coil on track, which reduces distortion. Its compact size also allows the tweeter structure to be small enough to mount in many different locations.

Aluminum wave guide

Details

The Wave Guide helps direct the high frequency sounds emanating from the tweeter, which covers more area. This means the high end can be heard more accurately and from more listening positions. The structure is made of machined aluminum and incorporates a phase plug that optimizes linearity.

Efficient voice coil

Details

Thanks to the K2 Power tweeter's inverted dome design, Focal can take advantage of a voice coil that's 2/3 the diameter of the dome itself. This lets the voice coil provide more support and move the dome more efficiently, which makes the tweeter more accurate and easier to drive.

Precision-made basket

Details

The tweeter's basket is made to be rigid so it doesn't flex under the tweeters movement. The inverted dome and magnet are mounted directly to the basket.

Heavy-duty aluminum phase plug

Details

The woofer's phase plug is a large piece of machined aluminum that helps to reduce distortion. This helps keep vocals and bass clear and smooth. It also acts as a heat sink for the speaker so it runs cooler when high power is applied.

Durable spider

Details

The job of the spider is to keep the woofer's movements linear so that it can move back and forth consistently. The material used is specially treated to remain flexible and reliable throughout the life of the speaker.

Rigid Basket

Details

Focal uses an aluminum-and-zinc alloy called Zamak to create the basket. This incredibly rigid and non-magnetic material won't interfere with the speaker's performance by creating an opposing magnetic field. Focal molds the wire terminals into the basket for rugged reliability.

Heavy-duty ferrite magnet

Details

You'll find ferrite magnets in lots of speakers — just not massive 3-pound magnets like Focal uses in their K2 speakers. This large magnet increases the efficiency of the speaker and allows Focal to install a longer voice coil. This in turn lets the cone move back and forth further and push more air, so that it plays louder, with better bass response.

Light-weight cone that's easier to drive

Details

Focal builds the woofer cones for their K2 speakers by sandwiching layers of woven Aramid fiber, aerospace foam, and fiberglass. These light and rigid materials make the speaker less likely to distort, giving the sound more accuracy and detail. Focal craftsmen assemble these cones by hand because there isn't a machine available that can replicate the skills required to build them. It takes about half an hour to build just one of these cones.

Large voice coil capable of greater power handling

Details

The K2 employs a voice coil much larger than most other speakers' voice coils. Having a large voice coil creates less distortion and allows for more power handling. The 2-ohm impedance pulls even more power from the amplifier driving the speaker, and gives it higher sensitivity. This makes the speaker more efficient, which lets it play louder with the power it's provided.

External Crossover

The K2's crossovers are external because of the large, high-quality capacitors and coils used within them. The reason they're so large is so they can do a better job of getting the highs to the tweeter and the lows to the woofer. This equates to cleaner separation so that the sound stage is more distinct.