Are tweeters still functioning if there is no crossover in the satellites?

Thread Starter

bypassrestrictions

Joined Jun 1, 2021
107
I cannot post photos. In a 2.1 speaker system, the satellites don't have any crossover for tweeters, the satellites connect to the subwoofer with an RCA cable, the two wires from the RCA cable are soldered to the mid-range driver in satellite, from that place a pair of wires are going to the tweeter. Inside the subwoofer, the RCA output has three wires, one black, one red and one white. I have never seen this type of configuration, what is the white wire for?

Is the tweeter functioning in this type of configuration? Is it reproducing all the frequencies sent to the satellite or just the treble?
 

eetech00

Joined Jun 8, 2013
3,859
I cannot post photos. In a 2.1 speaker system, the satellites don't have any crossover for tweeters, the satellites connect to the subwoofer with an RCA cable, the two wires from the RCA cable are soldered to the mid-range driver in satellite, from that place a pair of wires are going to the tweeter.
Nothing mysterious here.

Inside the subwoofer, the RCA output has three wires, one black, one red and one white. I have never seen this type of configuration, what is the white wire for?
Are you describing one speaker output jack on the subwoofer?

I would expect two of the wires used for the speaker connection.
Sometimes there is a volume control on one of the satellite speakers. The third wire might be for a volume control.

Is the tweeter functioning in this type of configuration? Is it reproducing all the frequencies sent to the satellite or just the treble?
It being a tweeter implies it only reproduces high frequencies. If there is no filtering of the audio, then some mid and low frequencies energy is being lost.
 

Audioguru again

Joined Oct 21, 2019
6,673
Without a capacitor or crossover to prevent the lower frequencies, the tweeter must be a piezo squeaker, not a real tweeter.
A few years ago I saw a 3-way speaker that had a photo of a tweeter, it looked real.
 

Thread Starter

bypassrestrictions

Joined Jun 1, 2021
107
There's probably a Capacitor glued somewhere on the Tweeter.

That is, if they are actually Silk-Dome-Tweeters with a Magnet and a Voice-Coil,
which is highly unlikely considering that they are connected with RCA-Jacks/Plugs.
.
.
.
That is what the manufacturer said and that is what they appear like. Backside of the tweeter is covered by metal, so I can't look into it.

Nothing mysterious here.

Are you describing one speaker output jack on the subwoofer?
The RCA sockets are in a kind of a box and I can't look into the box, there is input sockets and output sockets, both of them have 3 wires going into them, one black, one red and white, I can't look into the box, so I don't know how they are split.

I would expect two of the wires used for the speaker connection.
Sometimes there is a volume control on one of the satellite speakers. The third wire might be for a volume control.

It being a tweeter implies it only reproduces high frequencies. If there is no filtering of the audio, then some mid and low frequencies energy is being lost.
The satellites don't have any controls on them.

Without a capacitor or crossover to prevent the lower frequencies, the tweeter must be a piezo squeaker, not a real tweeter.
A few years ago I saw a 3-way speaker that had a photo of a tweeter, it looked real.
My mistake, I didn't open the tweeter last time, there is only a 1.5uF capacitor between the positive wire and the positive terminal of the tweeter.
 

Audioguru again

Joined Oct 21, 2019
6,673
My mistake, I didn't open the tweeter last time, there is only a 1.5uF capacitor between the positive wire and the positive terminal of the tweeter.
1.5uF in series with an 8 ohm speaker cuts 13.3kHz -3dB and higher frequencies -6dB per octave.
The capacitor value seems to be too small causing the cutoff frequency to be too high. Most real tweeters usually cutoff at about 3kHz to 5kHz.
 
Top