What does a crossover actually do?

You've probably heard you need one, but here's why. Think of it as a frequency splitter. No single driver reproduces the full frequency range well — a woofer is built for lows, a tweeter for highs, a horn for the mids and highs it's voiced to. A crossover splits the incoming signal and routes each band only to the driver designed to handle it, so nothing works outside its comfort zone. The payoff: cleaner output, more usable headroom, and drivers that aren't straining against something they were never built for.