Coaxial speakers are speakers comprised of a midrange woofer and a tweeter which is either built-in or suspended over the midrange woofer. The majority of stock OEM car speakers are coaxial in design because of low cost and easy installation. With a coaxial setup, all you need is two speakers to get a wide range of sound with minimal hassle. These speakers provide adequate sound because the woofer and tweeter are mounted on the same axis so all sounds come from a central point known as the point source. Coaxial speakers come in many different sizes that will fit most vehicles with almost no modification, some are even direct replacements.
2-Way Coaxial Speakers – Kicker KS650
Most coaxial speakers will say “2-Way or 3-Way on the package. When it says 2-way, it means it is a standard speaker with a midrange woofer and one tweeter. If it says 3-way, it is a midrange woofer with two tweeters. If you see 4-way, it will be a midrange woofer with 3 tweeters, etc. The idea behind it is that by adding more tweeters, the speaker will hit a broader range of frequencies. A higher quality 2 or 3-way system will hit most of the 20-20,000 Hz frequencies that the human ear can pick up.
Some vehicles may not even come with coaxial speakers and instead have just midbass woofers. Replacing that midbass speaker with a coaxial set will drastically improve the sound quality of your music. The added tweeter produces high notes for a rich, full sound. Installing new coaxial speakers is simple on most vehicles, sound quality will improve, and it is a cheap alternative to replacing your OEM radio.