Q.Can I use an active crossover instead of the supplied Boston crossovers?

Q.What are the crossover frequency and slope of my Boston car speakers?

Q.What is the sensitivity of you car speakers?

Q.When I turn my system up really loud the tweeters sometimes shut off. Why?

Q.Which Boston speakers will fit into my vehicle?

Q.Can't find what I'm looking for. What should I do now?

Q. Can I use an active crossover instead of the supplied Boston crossovers?
A. Replacing the Boston passive network with an active crossover can be problematic. Each component in the supplied Boston crossover is factored into the total acoustic output of the system. When you remove it from the signal chain and directly couple the woofers and tweeters to an amplifier, you will be unable to exactly replicate the properties of a Boston system specific passive network.

Why?

The first point is that the typical active crossover does not allow nearly the flexibility of a passive design. The second point is that we often stagger or overlap the crossover points to achieve a flat response. The actual electrical crossover points for the woofer and tweeter however are generally asymmetric and different on all of the Boston components. Finding an active crossover that will allow you to adjust each of these points independently and tuning it correctly is going to be difficult but not impossible. Just as a note: designing a passive network takes our team of experienced engineers several months to complete.

You will get better performance from your system by paying more attention to the installation techniques and driver placement rather than pursuing the use of active crossovers. There is no substitute for proper speaker placement and solid installation.
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Q. What are the crossover frequency and slope of my Boston car speakers?
A. We do not publish this information, as it doesn't tell you anything useful about the crossover. Even if you know the crossover point and slope, you still do not know the type of network (Butterworth, L&R etc) as there are hundreds of ways to develop a crossover. We could build 10 different networks all with 18dB per octave slopes and each at 3000hz and have each one sound very different. And that's not even taking into account for the fact that often our low pass and high pass sections of the network are at different slopes and don't share the same crossover point.

Someone asking us for a crossover point and slope is like someone asking Honda "How do I build and V-Tech and what is the best color?” It's not that we don't want to answer these questions; it's simply a case of there not being a simple answer. If you using an electronic crossover the passive number will not translate to active values (active crossovers to do not have to account for impedance curves). Experimentation is going to lead you to the proper set up for your system.
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Q. What is the sensitivity of you car speakers?
A. There is no industry standard for measuring sensitivity. How much power you feed the speaker and how far away from the speaker the measuring device is are only part of the equation. Other factors severely effect the final measurement. What frequency or range of frequencies are being played? Some companies use 1kHz, some use whatever frequency gives the highest measurement for that speaker, some average a range of frequencies the speaker is designed for.

There is no standard.

Secondly, what is the speaker's environment? Is it measured in a car? Is it measured in a free field environment? Is the speaker in an enclosure? Is the speaker in an infinite baffle? Again, there is no standard, and again, all of these things dramatically effect the final measurement. It has been said in many magazines and I will repeat it here. "Sensitivity specs are not useful for comparing speakers from different manufacturers."

We do publish a Reference Efficiency spec for the Boston subs, and this is much more consistent spec among manufacturers. Any decent box building software will ask for this spec. Interestingly, this spec is measured at 1kHz. But the box building software will also ask for inductance 1kHz so it can accurately predict response down where the sub will play. I hope this answers your question.
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Q. When I turn my system up really loud the tweeters sometimes shut off. Why?
A. The Boston crossovers feature a poly switch that will temporally shut the tweeter off if the amplifier is clipping (saving the tweeters from failure). To reduce the possibility of this happening, adjust the amplifiers gains to prevent clipping or upgrade to a larger amplifier. Boosting the treble on the head unit or equalizer can also exasperate this problem. If you are not excited about upgrading the amplifier try moving the tweeters to a more efficient location.
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Q. Which Boston speakers will fit into my vehicle?
A. This is a difficult question to answer with 100% certainty, due to the fact that automotive manufacturers have been known to change speaker sizes in a vehicle model year without notice. Also, typically there is more than one audio system available for most vehicles, each possibly using different size speakers. Both of the above variables make it extremely complicated to find a reliable source for this information.

Our best advice is to visit your local Boston Acoustics car audio dealer. Their trained installers will be the best source for this information. Their trained professionals can take a look at your vehicle to determine which speaker size will be the best fit.

To find the local dealer simply click here.
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Q. Can't find what I'm looking for. What should I do now?
A. Please send your questions to support@bostona.com.
Your e-mail is very important to us. E-mail is answered during normal business hours:
Monday through Friday 9am to 5:30pm EST
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