4 way vs 3 way

[ben313 10+ year member]

Whats the pros and cons about 4 way speakers. I was thinking about getting a pair for crisp, clear highs and just general sound. I dont really want components. Thanks for any input.

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[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

If you're just using coaxials, there's no point in going with anything over a simple 2-way midrange and tweet setup, properly powered off of an external amplifier.

Three and four way coaxials are gimmicks designed to sell, not provide better imaging & frequency response.

 

[UndercoverPunk 5,000+ posts]

no notacable differance, except price tag

 

[danteBirosel 5,000+ posts]

i would suggest looking into 2-way speakers.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

For the love of god, read the sticky's: http://forums.caraudio.com/vb/showpost.php?p=767530&postcount=2

In co-axials, a 2-way speaker is a speaker that contains only a midwoofer and a tweeter…..the midwoofer playing the lower frequencies (down to around 80hz or so), the tweeter playing the higher frequencies (around 3khz or 4khz and up). 3-way co-axials typically have a midwoofer, tweeter and "supertweeter", with the supertweeter being designated to handle the very, very high frequencies only. Co-axials can go as high as 5-way (midwoofer, midrange, smaller midrange, tweeter and supertweeter). For all intents and purposes, anything more than 2-way in co-axials is a marketing gimmick. Going with 3-way co-axials or higher usually does not increase performance much, if at all.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

man i just had some 16 ways now im bummed

 

[tRiGgEr 5,000+ posts]

A three some is much better than a boring old two some. Just make sure you have permission from both parties before attempting.

 

[SSS 18734 5,000+ posts]

Yep. Anything over 2 way is almost always a gimmick. The tiny little "tweeters" you see are parasitic tweeters... they're attached directly to the real tweeter, so they vibrate with it and give off SOME high pitch frequencies, but only a small fraction of what the real tweeter produces. They are in no way a real 3 or 4 or god forbid sometimes a 5-way setup.

3 way component setups are different though.