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Is a new crossover needed when replacing OEM component speakers?
As the title asked, is it necessary to use the new crossover that came with my Focal component speaker/tweeter for the fronts or can I just replace the tweeter in the pillar and driver in the door and call it good? I'm assuming there is a factory crossover somewhere but don't know if I need to switch it out.
The car’s audio system is basic standard Audio 20 with just 4 speakers in total and 4 tweeters in doors only.
E250 Avantgarde 2014 Facelift
If I'm not mistaken your car doesn't have any crossover. The door tweeter and speaker are fed by a single channel and simply connected in parallel (see attached). If you want to use the Focal crossover you will need to do some wiring work on the door.
My car has the Command Online but with the standard speaker kit. What I did in mine was to get a set of used Harman front speaker (low, mid and high drivers) and wired them with the low driver in series with the pair of mid and high driver in parallel. It took some testing to find the right power distribution between the drivers but that setup worked nicely for me. Since you have the crossover already, I would just use it.
Best!
Last edited by Andre Cateb; Jul 4, 2024 at 03:16 PM.
If I'm not mistaken your car doesn't have any crossover. The door tweeter and speaker are fed by a single channel and simply connected in parallel (see attached). If you want to use the Focal crossover you will need to do some wiring work on the door.
My car has the Command Online but with the standard speaker kit. What I did in mine was to get a set of used Harman front speaker (low, mid and high drivers) and wired them with the low driver in series with the pair of mid and high driver in parallel. It took some testing to find the right power distribution between the drivers but that setup worked nicely for me. Since you have the crossover already, I would just use it.
Best!
Firstly, thanks for your time and replying.
Secondly, I am sorry but I don’t know how to read these wiring diagrams I am kinda beginner into this. If my car doesn’t have an inbuilt crossover then how come the Tweeter and component is separated?
In my opinion, the best way for you to proceed would be to install the Focal crossover right after the connector inside the door and ran new wires to the tweeter and woofer. You can try to use the factory set-up, but as mentioned, OEM speaker sets like these are designed to work like this and the impedance of the set connected in parallel is matched to the impedance of the radio. It will likely work if you simple replace the speakers but I bet using the crossover will give a better result.
In my opinion, the best way for you to proceed would be to install the Focal crossover right after the connector inside the door and ran new wires to the tweeter and woofer. You can try to use the factory set-up, but as mentioned, OEM speaker sets like these are designed to work like this and the impedance of the set connected in parallel is matched to the impedance of the radio. It will likely work if you simple replace the speakers but I bet using the crossover will give a better result.
Hope it made sense.
But that would chop the connector head of the main speaker wire to connect it to crossover which I don’t want to mess around. Neither I want to install any amp. I just want to power it from stock system
You can pin-out the door connector and ran new wires from there (it's what I did). The inserts for those connector are reasonably easy to source from electronics shops or you can by them at your local MB dealer (for significantly more money). Since you will be installing non original equipment, there will be some work in either case. In any case, this was just a suggestion.
The original speakers are riveted to the inside door panel and you will need adaptor rings to install any aftermarket speaker on the same place. In either case, this will take some work to get done even if use the original wires to connect the new speakers.
As the title asked, is it necessary to use the new crossover that came with my Focal component speaker/tweeter for the fronts or can I just replace the tweeter in the pillar and driver in the door and call it good? I'm assuming there is a factory crossover somewhere but don't know if I need to switch it out.
The car’s audio system is basic standard Audio 20 with just 4 speakers in total and 4 tweeters in doors only.
E250 Avantgarde 2014 Facelift
Thanks in advance.
Our digital system uses individual amp channel per Spk without any losses in crossover.
The pre-amp is in charge of filtering the different frequency bands sent to individual IC Chip.
Low + Mid + High = 3x distinct amp channels!
Conventional basic audio systems use one amp per door where cheap capacitors are used to cut the low frequency out in Mid + tweeter channel.
The woofer gets the whole unfiltered spectrum without any damaging effect.
Our system has better HiFi with very little losses. The amp has countless chips in it.... like 40 count. It's quite a sight to see that inside an amplifier.
The speaker polarity for AC system relates to the phase such that all speakers move forward together in synchronicity. Reverse mixed polarity just produces less power, no damage.
++++ PDF WIS Diagram... !!!!
shows shared channel with tweeter piggy backed over woofer: very conventional systems with cap filter not shown.
Anyway the fragile part that smokes easy without filter is the tweeter. And the woofer smokes when provided with too much power.
+++++ Diagram shows SPK connected to A2 as being radio unit.
It looks like a strip down VIN diagram.
Last edited by CaliBenzDriver; Jul 4, 2024 at 07:22 PM.
Our digital system uses individual amp channel per Spk without any losses in crossover.
The pre-amp is in charge of filtering the different frequency bands sent to individual IC Chip.
Low + Mid + High = 3x distinct amp channels!
Conventional basic audio systems use one amp per door where cheap capacitors are used to cut the low frequency out in Mid + tweeter channel.
The woofer gets the whole unfiltered spectrum without any damaging effect.
Our system has better HiFi with very little losses. The amp has countless chips in it.... like 40 count. It's quite a sight to see that inside an amplifier.
The speaker polarity for AC system relates to the phase such that all speakers move forward together in synchronicity. Reverse mixed polarity just produces less power, no damage.
++++ PDF WIS Diagram... !!!!
shows shared channel with tweeter piggy backed over woofer: very conventional systems with cap filter not shown.
Anyway the fragile part that smokes easy without filter is the tweeter. And the woofer smokes when provided with too much power.
+++++ Diagram shows SPK connected to A2 as being radio unit.
It looks like a strip down VIN diagram.
Without the premium audio options installed (either Harman or Bang & Olufsen) that is what you get in the W212. One woofer and one tweeter per door connected in parallel directly to the head unit. No amplifier, central speaker or the sub-woofer.
I think in the US the Harman audio system was standard on all W212 but in Brazil for instance the Harman audio system was only available on the E63.
Without the premium audio options installed (either Harman or Bang & Olufsen) that is what you get in the W212. One woofer and one tweeter per door connected in parallel directly to the head unit. No amplifier, central speaker or the sub-woofer.
I think in the US the Harman audio system was standard on all W212 but in Brazil for instance the Harman audio system was only available on the E63.
Thank you Andre for this information -
I had no idea Daimler offered a basic audio without external amplifier.
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