What does 2-way speakers mean.?

Question

In spec sheets for speakers you see the term 2-way speakers but what does it mean.
Cheers for any answers.

Answer 1

It means that the speaker has two drivers to reproduce sound. Typically a 2-way speaker has a "woofer" to reproduce the lower frequencies and a "tweeter" to reproduce the higher frequencies. It usually also contains some electronic components called a "crossover" that sends the lower-pitched sounds to the woofer and the higher-pitched sounds to the tweeter.

If the speaker cabinet does not include a cross over, it will almost always have separate sets of terminals on the back to connect to the woofer and the tweeter and the functions of the crossover will be done by electronics outside the speaker enclosure. This type of speaker is called "bi-amped" because it uses separate amplifiers for the low and high frequencies.

Some 2-way speakers can use more than two drivers to reproduce the sound. They may have multiple woofers, multiple tweeters, or both. They still only split the frequencies into two bands, though, with all of the tweeters reproducing the same high frequencies and all of the woofers reproducing the low frequencies.

If a speaker has only one driver to reproduce all frequencies you will often see it referred to as a "full range" speaker.

There are speakers that split the incoming sound frequencies into more than two bands. You may see speakers described as 3-way or 4-way. These speakers have crossovers that split the incoming electrical signals into three or four bands, respectively, and they have one or more drivers to reproduce each of those bands of frequencies.

There are those who believe that the more bands you split a signal into, the better your sound reproduction will be. And there are those who believe that anything more than 2-way introduces too much phase error into the reproduced sound, detracting from it. I've heard some 2-way speakers that sound better than 3-way and 4-way speakers in the same showroom. I've also heard some very good sounding 3-way and 4-way speakers. For that matter, I've heard "full range" speakers that sounded outstanding, but they were very high-end speakers using a transmission-line driver and they cost a fortune.

The real test for you should be to listen to two sets of speakers that you like AT THE SAME VOLUME in an A/B comparison in the same room. Ignore "2-way" versus "3-way" or "4-way" and see what sounds best to you. Make sure you're listening at the same volume, though. If you aren't, the louder speaker generally sounds better to your brain, even though the other speaker may sound better if it was at the same volume.

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
What does 2-way speakers mean.?
In spec sheets for speakers you see the term 2-way speakers but what does it mean.
Cheers for any answers.

Answer 3

i don't know but whenever i use the speakers i get just STATIC, and a big headache. I think it has something to do with surround sound, as i've read in a post somewhere. Adding two extra speakers to a stereo system messes it up but when not connected its flat so i dont know whatsoever the hell that means. Does my speaker system include a seperate driver that was blocked this whole time or am i using it incorectly

Answer 4

Most of the above answers are almost correct, but not quite.

A 2-way speaker will have AT LEAST two drivers - it may have one tweeter and two woofers, for example. However, the crossover network will only feed two signals (a high frequency and a low frequency signal). Hence, it is a '2-way' speaker.

I have 3-way speakers, but each speaker actually has 4 drivers - a bass driver, two mid drivers and a tweeter. However, the crossover network splits the signal into three (high, mid and low range), so it's a 3-way speaker.

Answer 5

2 way means its not one way :)
This term would have created less confusion if it was termed 2-Lane speakers. Like on roads we have different lanes for vehicles moving at different speed, we have different speakers in one box for sounds of different frequencies. In 2 way speaker there are two speakers, one for low frequency and another one for high frequency. This separation is said to produce better quality of sound as compared to another speaker with single speaker. On the similar lines, you can have 3-way or n-way speakers.

Answer 6

It looks like somebody zipped down the answers giving everyone a thumbs-down before posting something that had already been said.

Weak.

2-way, 3-way, etc. indicates the number of bands the crossover splits the incoming signal into and there will be at least one driver in the speaker cabinet for each of those bands. Of course this has already been stated a few posts above.

Answer 7

2-way speakers are speakers that have two devices in them that produce sound. Usually, a two-way speaker has a woofer (to produce low and mid-range frequencies) and a tweeter (to produce high-end frequencies). 2-way speakers are better than single-driver speakers in terms of producing accurate sound across the entire sound spectrum, but 3-way and 4-way speakers are even better than 2-way speakers in producing realistic, life-like sound. When you're talking about regular box-enclosure speakers, the ideal set-up would be a set of 3-way speakers and a separate subwoofer.

Answer 8

2 speakers in one case. Two ways are typically include a bass and a midrange or tweeter speaker.

Answer 9

For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/awYfF

2 Way is usually tweeter and midrange together. 3 way is tweeter, midrange and bass. 4 way is Supertweeter, tweeter, midrange and Bass. 5 way is Supertweeter, tweeter, midrange high, midrange low, and Bass. But there are other setup too than this, it isnt a golden rule.

Answer 10

Is it not the fact that the speaker has a Tweeter cone and a Bass cone, not 100%