Need help upgrading speakers!

In my opinion it would make a big volume difference and also a sound quality difference, and this would actually be a pretty easy diy project, and a pretty inexpensive option. If you order from crutchfields they send you basic instructions and have excellent customer service if you run into a problem. You would want to buy coaxial speakers and not componants. Only thing with crutchfields is they only provide a speaker mount adapter for 6 1/2 and 6 3/4 inch speakers because they claim a 6x9 or 5x7 wont fit, but it will with the right adapter. A 6x9 would give you more bass compared to a round 6 1/2. If you want to go this route check out *********.com i believe they sell 6x9 adapters. They also have tutorial videos on the website on how to remove door panels. With a little research and some help from tacomaworld you should be able to takle this yourself. You can also Email a customer service tech guy at crutchfields and they will help you pick a setup.
If you want better sound quality then you should get component speakers, which would mean you would be replacing the stock tweeters as well as the door speakers and you should run them off of an amp which is a much more involved project.
Let me know wht you end up buying and ill try to give you a few pointers if you are going to install yourself

 

Sorry should have clarified, i was responding to this^
and no you dont need an amp. The main benifit to an amp is to be able to play you speakers at a higer volume without distortion. Just a headunit and some decent speakers will play loader and sound better than stock

 

Adding a new head unit will make a world of difference when it comes to just stock speakers.

20$ speakers are much better than stock if you ask me. If you are just using the head unit for power, then you are limited on speakers. If you go the amp route, the sky(Money) is the limit.


Do you want to have sub(s) later? If yes, how many and how much bass are you wanting?
Do you want to have your mids/highs (door speakers) powered by an amp or just use the stock head unit?
Are you wanting ear bleeding loud, shake the car next to you with bass, super clean sound, etc?

Go find some people who have nice stereos and ask if you can hear it, then find out what they have and what they have spent. That way you can have some baseline to work off of.

 

let me try to break this down a little better for ya, im off of myphone and on the comp now so my thoughts should be a little more organized haha. just to let ya know i am no expert, ive only installed a few stereos, and the first amp/subwoofer/component system ive installed was in my tacoma a few months ago.

first of all a few questions for you- does your tacoma have the steering wheel controls for the radio and would you like your new headunit to function with these controls? are you interested in a big screen/touchscreen or navigation or are you mainly concerned with just volume and you dont care about the looks or other features of the stereo? do you want sirius/xm, if you do does your truck have the stock satelite antenna? are you mainly concerned with just volume, and would like some sound quality improvement or do you want to spend a little extra money for much better sound quality, maybe a subwoofer+amp.

ok so, going off of your original posts, and with a lower budget heres what i think you can get:

just replace headunit (anywhere from $60 to $1500) this will get you more power and more volume. problem is, the stock speakers are not designed to handle more power and volume so your sound quality will not improve, it will actually be worse if you turn it up loud.

just replace door speakers with co-axial(2-way) speakers ($60-$200)this will get you better sound quality and a little volume increase. the stock headunit will not have enough power or volume to use you speakers to the full potential and the volume may not increase very much. the stock stereo has a very low limit to how much power it will send to the speakers. you would be keeping the stock tweeters with this option.

replace headunit and door speakers with co-axials-this will get you alot more volume, probably all the volume you will need if your not as concerned with sound quality and you dont blast your music. this will also increase the sound quality compared to stock, but will not sound as good as running and amp and component speakers. again keeping the stock tweeters.

run an amp and replace door and tweeter speakers with components (this is where is starts to get expensive, and it is a much more involved project.) this will get you ALOT of volume, and increase the sound quality much more than the other options above. the component speakers will be paired with new tweeters. this will also give you the option of installing a subwoofer, and the more options when it comes to controlling the highs/mids/lows. this would be over your budget but if you dont go with the highest quality products this could be purchased and probably installed for less than $1000- just ballpark, i have over $2000 into my setup + hours of labor

 

so judging by your previuos posts, your best option in probably replacing your headunit and your 6X9 door speakers. most of the questions i asked you above would involve spending more $ like keeping the steering wheel controls, adding sirius, adding navigation. i would suggest doing the install youself if you have the time and interest, take the $100 or so you saved by doing it yourself and buy a nicer headunit. maybe one with ipod intergration or bluetooth or a touchscreen. you can go to best buy and listen to some speakers to pick out ones that sound good to you, but i would recomend ordering from crutchfields just because they have great customer service, provide instructions and the website will tell you what headunits and speakers will easily fit in your truck. i also left out the option of keeping your headunit, adding and amp and new speakers, this would save some money but i wouldnt do it, if you have the power and quality speakers your going to want to be able to have different sound settings and equalizers that the stock headunit doesnt provide.

 

I built a full system in my 12, but your $500-$600 should get you a decent head unit, and all new speakers. Maybe add just a bit more and get a small powered sub. I swear by Crutchfield. Crutchfielddarren is on this forum, or just go to their website and plug in your vehicle. They always have sales and specials. You can also live chat a specialist or talk to one on the phone. Just make sure to read the reviews on each item and educate yourself. They have all sorts of FAQ type answers and always include ALL you need to install. Even if you've never done a stereo, you can do it with Crutchfield. They even send instructions on removal of your old junk and their customer service is open late and on weekends. Good luck!!

 

Alright. thanks. I am going to have to look into that. I'm working on finding and amp and new speakers.

 

if youre interested in an amp you should email someone at crutchfields or do some research on matching speakers with amps, youll want to know about rms and peak watts when ordering speakers and youll want to know about wattage and number of channels when ordering an amp in order to match you speakers with the amp. i think adding an amp is definatly worth the money but it is alot more complicated and harder/expensive to install. amps pull power directly from your battery, so a wire needs to be run from your battery, through the firewall, and then to the amp. good luck man!

 

What do y'all think about this set up? I too am looking just to upgrade speakers and the head unit at this time with the intention of adding amps and a sub later. I just want it to sound better (my rear speakers were messed up when I got the truck) and be a little louder.

https://www.crutchfield.com/scgi-bin/wishlist.asp

 

I cant see your shopping cart. I think you can add the link for us to see as long as your not logged in to your crutchfield account. Only think i would think about if i were you is you will probably want component speakers with crossovers and tweeters for your front door once you have an amp. You could run components off of the headunit but they would be very underpowered.

 

What about this speaker for the fronts, is it a component? Thanks man

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_107DB651S/Polk-Audio-db651s.html?tp=105

 

Maybe get coaxials that will fit the back, 6 1/2 inch i believe (my 09 access cab doesnt have rear door speakers, they are in the headliner dammit toyota) make sure you buy some that can handle a higher rms, install those in the front for now and dont even worry about rears for now, maybe fade all the way to the front if the rears sound messed up. Believe it or not alot of sound guys would recomend only having front speakers for a better sound stage. Once your ready for an amp switch the coaxials to the back and buy components for the front. Just a thought. Or just buy everything at once because it will be much easier to wire everythin at once.

 

Are the ones I mentioned coaxials? How do you tell?

 

Thats a co-axial speaker. Ive heard good things about polk audio but have never heard them. You dont really need a shallow mount speaker but it doesnt matter, looks like that speaker has great reviews. If you want to power something like this off an amp eventually you should look for a speaker with a higher rms and higher peak power handling (watts) you can find this info on crutchfields if you click and features and spec charts. Although you can power a speaker with a lower wattage on an amp with a higher wattage but if the amp is to powerful and you crank up the volume you could blow the speaker.

 

Alright thanks man, Im chatting with a crutchfield guy right now

 

Most of the time co-axials will say 2-way or 3-way speaker. Components will ushually say components and be paired with a tweeter and crossovers(seperates the high and mid frequencies) in general components are more expensive, can handle more power(also require more power for optimal sound) and they have better sound quality compared to co-axials. Although there is some really good coaxials out there also that you can get some real good crisp sound from. Components in the front are nice for tacomas because you already have a mouting location for the tweeters. Mounting them isnt straightfoward tho unless you buy a adapter from *********. Or have some skills with a jigsaw and mdf

 

I noticed you shopping cart said 2010 tacoma but ur sig says 06. 05-08 have rear speakers in the door 09-12 have little useless speakers in the headliner

 

Nice, they are very helpful and alot more knowledgable than me, good luck.

 

Thanks to everyone! I think I'm just going to buy the speakers and amps from Best Buy and pay them the 40 bucks to install it all. Your help is greatly appreciated!

- Cameron

 

I would be very cautious... I am going to say that $40 is to install one pair of speakers. If you are talking about two pair and an amp, I am guessing $40 + $40 plus they are going to get probably $50 install for the amp, then they are going to hit you for an amp install kit that will include the wiring...
Crutchfield will probably be less, for better stuff, and you will learn something about your truck, and get lifetime tech support.
I moved a system that I bought from them from one truck into my next vehicle... they sent me all the new pieces that i needed for free...
Also, the shipping is usually free and no sales tax...
I think you'll be ahead if you go Crutchfield over Best Buy.. IMHO

I'm sure some other members will back me up on this.. Guys???