Stock head unit

Hi there,
I have the stock entune head unit on my 14 double cab. I'm looking to upgrade the front speakers to some new 6x9's. Not looking for tons of bass or to blow anything out of the water. Just wanting a better, clearer sound.
My questions is though, with all intentions of keeping the stock unit, is it worth it to change out the speakers? Or does the head unit have that much impact that the sound wont be that much better?
Thanks in advance

 

Is it more than just price tag on speakers? i'm not that fluent in audio upgrades. I do like improved sound over stock but I don't need anything crazy. I want to just stick with speaker upgrades. Preferably a set under 80 for the pair (front's). I just don't want to buy some, install and still have very similar sound as to full stock setup ya know?

 

The stock radio and speakers are paired to be as efficient as possible.

Think of a balsa wood plane with a rubber band as a motor. Plenty of power for the light wood, replace the balsa wood with ebony and the rubber band won't even keep it in the air.

Same thing with the low power radio. If you put 200W rms speakers in there with the stock radio it will sound worse than stock.

Look for the most efficient speakers you can find that don't require 100+ watts to hit their stride.

 

Look around for a thread about a $250 audio upgrade or something similar. It involves doing the Subaru tweeters (Kicker rebrand) and Kicker CS front and rear. It's a little harsh sounding at first but once they break in, they soften up while keeping the massive clarity improvement. If you're looking for big bass you'll need a sub but for me, I'm more than happy with the setup and a stock Entune deck.

If you order from Crutchfield, you get all the install stuff to go with it but I will say the rings they provide are a bit iffy. Gets the job done but you might want to get better if you're doing more than just a casual speaker upgrade.

Just to echo what was said above though, don't aim too high because high end speakers need more power than the stock head unit will put out.

 

Here is the link to the thread you mentioned:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/premium-audio-upgrade-for-less-than-250.510424/

The information is mostly geared towards the 3rd Gen Toyota but there is some discussion in various places regarding 2nd Gen Tacomas. It can just be hard to find in 185 pages of material. The Subaru tweeters that you mentioned are a direct plug and play option, but only for the 3rd Gen, not the 2nd Gen. @Jaypown OP, keep looking in the audio/video forums for 2nd Gen info. Check out some of the audio build threads there and you can weed through the thread pasted above. OP, it will be a heavy slog if you choose to do it.

And OP if you want to achieve hero status for 2nd Gen members then use the multi-quote function when you navigate through the thread to compile all the 2nd Gen info into one post. That would be a ton of work but amazing if it could be done.

 

Oops. I spend so much time in the third gen forum I didn't even think to look.

 

Yeah i've read about the subaru tweeters and right now, it's not on my list of to do's. I don't mind sifting through pages but man, 185 is a lot lol. As @velogeek mentioned, I'm not looking for some massive upgrade or shooting for the stars here and also not looking for much bass improvement. Just something better than stock with more clarity among the highs and lows.

Thanks for that analogy because it helps a lot. I never really thought about it that way. Similar to power to weight ratios on vehicles. Like the guys that put the hellcat engine in a miata but if you put it in a dually f350, you get a big difference in output. So I want something thats mild enough that the stock entune can handle and push enough power through.

Thank you guys!

 

Great question. I went with Kicker DS series because of high sensitivity, meaning gets the most out of power provided, and is a 3 way with more clear sound. A little better bass but not very noticeable. Now if you do an aftermarket head unit....different story. Very clear and highs great plus very good lows!!!