Good Set of speakers for 3rdGen??

Wanting some better speakers for my 3rdGen Tacoma SR5. I don't have the JBL option so the stock speakers sound decent but not great...my Scion Tc had an Alpine system so I loved it just had to add my own sub and amp...But I don't want to have a whole system in place just yet, due to the fact that I have a newborn

So I would like to just upgrade my speakers and tweeters to have some good sound but not sure of great brands and the sizes needed. Any recommendations? All the help I could get would be great!

 

Have you checked out the Crutchfield site? Their resources are pretty good.

 

@DrFunker i haven't yet, I wanted to see what brands others are using and their opinions.

 

Ahhhh...the research phase. I know that phase well.
I just put a set of RFs 3 ways and some Shok Mat in mine. They are good. Not great, but way better than the stock POS that were there.

 

@DrFunker did you use the 3-ways front and back?? I've looked around and seen some people use component speakers up front and 2 or 3 way in the back since most of the sound you hear is coming from the front speakers and tweeters.

 

People go 2 or 3 way in the back because there is not tweeter mounts on the rear doors. Component speakers will give you a better sound than 2 or 3 way speakers.

You are going to need door speaker adapters for the new speakers FYI.

What ever speakers you go with make sure the RMS is low, like around 30w or so, if you are going to use an amp then you can look at speakers with higher RMS ratings.

 

@Zac of all trades so with that being said, I will not be putting in an amplifier just because of my baby so I obviously would not go with component speakers....since the 3rdGen already comes with tweeters in the dash, should I go with 2-way speakers all the way around? or 3-way speakers all the way around? or do one and one?

 

Did you use 3-way speakers on front and back even though there are tweeters?

 

I did 3 way for all 4. I know it is not best for the front, but it is better than what was there, that's for sure.

 

No i bought a component set and did not use the crossovers they came with. I ran an amp to the front tweeters and 6x9s for a front stage, and used a DSP for an active crossover and EQ. The back I used 2 way coaxial speakers.

I would go with 2 way speakers all around if that is the route you want to go. Just make sure the RMS rating on the speakers are not over 40w RMS. If you get speakers with a high RMS then your HU will not be able to power them properly and you will not be happy with the results.

 

It's not so much the power rating (RMS) that you need to pay attention to but the sensitivity that you want to look at. If you're not going to run an amp then you want to find speakers with high sensitivity ratings because that is how much output (volume) you will get out of the speaker at 1 watt of power. The higher the rating the more volume you will get.

Example below, look at the specs of these 2 speakers. Even though the Polk is rated to take more power it also is more sensitive. It doesn't seem like much but having a 3db difference is noticeable and is like having double the amplified power.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_95315SR62/Memphis-Audio-15-SRX62.html?tp=105

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_107DXI651S/Polk-Audio-DXi651s.html?tp=105

Sorry Zac wasn't trying to step on your toes here

 

@mach1man001 So say if I were to go with the Polk you attached, the RMS on those speakers wouldn't affect the sound since it is higher that the RMS on the Memphis? I am only trying to get the best bang for the buck. Idk anything about car audio and the specs so My guess on choosing speakers is this...if my HU puts out lets say 30w of power, I need speakers that have a RMS of 30 or below...Is that correct? and where does the db come into play? I don't want to buy some speakers and my HU not power them enough to sound good. Right now with the stock speakers I am having to raise the volume to around 30 just to hear the mids and lows.

Sorry I am a noob lol

 

Leo, no reason to be sorry. We were all new to this at sometime.

The RMS number is the amount of continuous power that the speaker can take. The next number is the one that a lot of speaker companies love to throw out there is the MAX power rating that is the maximum amount of power that the speaker can take in short bursts. So yes the Polks can take more power than the Memphis. The last number and the one we have been talking about is the sensitivity, it's rated for the db @ 1 watt, db is just the abbreviation of decibel. The higher the db rating the louder it will play with only only 1 watt.
I HIGHLY doubt that your factory head unit is putting out 30 watts, so in a case like yours where you want to keep your factory head unit and not add an amp the sensitivity rating needs to be pretty high. For guys like Zac or myself we don't need to worry about that number so much as we have external amplifiers to push the speakers and get more sound.

Hope this makes sense to you and helps you out.

Rob

 

@mach1man001 thanks for the advice and all the info! Makes looking for speakers much easier now. Thanks again!

 

NP. GL