Worth upgrading the speakers with stock headunit?

Wanted to upgrade the speakers in my truck and was told by a friend who does audio installations that it might not be worth the money. The speakers I was looking at were just the kickers and some nice tweeters with no amp. He said with the stock headunit and no amp it’s not worth the money.
Looking for second opinions?
Not ever going to replace headunit

 

I was told the same thing, without a good digital res amp new speakers would be a waste. I was reccomended to do the amp with speakers, and keep the stock speakers as added mids.
I just wanted a hidden sub and higher top end, but it looks like its a $2500 job at a shop to get into a noticeablly better setup. Still unsure if i'll do it.
I too will not replace the headunit ever.

 

Get OEM Audio+

 

I replaced I speakers with Kickers and there was a notable improvement in sound. I did all six speakers. Two years later I replaced the head unit and and that was far better. I would recommend changing the speakers.

 

Speakers alone won’t give much improvement. I wanted to keep the factory head unit so I went all kicker speakers with an amp and a LC7i line output converter. I’m happy.

 

In this case your friends are giving you decent advice.

 

Yes, it is worth it..... but not with speakers alone... my set up is Kicker CS speakers in both sets of doors, and the Subaru Kicker tweeters in the dash. This alone made the sound cleaner but the factory headunit could not provide enough power. So I added an Alpine Power Pack amplifier. This really helped drive the 6×9's in the doors, improving bass response. Then I made a fibreglass box in the back right pocket and installed a CewinVega shallow 10" dual voice coil sub powered by a Hertz D-Power sub amp, driven off the front channel of the head unit. This sounds great.

The factory headunit has 2 flaws though... rear output sucks! And bass roll off as volume increases... for now I am happy but I may install an AudioControl unit with Accubass to improve these flaws...

 

I was really happy with the Kicker & Subaru upgrade. I say it is worth it.
The stock speakers weigh next to nothing, you can tell a difference just in the huge magnets alone.
Of course, like those others said you then want to keep going for more and more.

 

If you aren't looking to upgrade head unit, I would say for $200 and a couple hours of your time that the front door speakers and the tweeters are well worth it. The sound quality is not high end but better than stock for sure. I wouldn't bother with the rears. Aside from those 2 locations I would probably just spend the money to upgrade the whole system but that's a lot more money and time. I did all 4 speakers in my access cab plus the tweeters and threw some sound mat in as well. I spent a rainy Sunday and about $400 total. Rears were a waste of money with the stock head unit.

 

I did kickers in the dash and front doors. Didn't mess with back doorS as they are under powered. Then added a kicker hideaway sub/amp. I'm happy with the improvement in sound. Stock head unit still.

 

Did the tweeter upgrade only, and added a 8" powered sub under my seat. More than content!

Split the wires from the rear speakers, as you don't hear them anyways! I have no desire or feel the need to replace the front door speakers.

 

You can add the Kicker Key amp for $270 that can be plug and play with the right harness. Add that and new speakers would make a real decent system for relatively low $$.

 

i did everything Speakers, Headunit, Sub, Amps, and sound deadening. for me its worth it

 

Thats a stupid take on it. You dont need to do everything all at once on these trucks. When I did my audio system I did speakers, then added a amp, then added a sub, then added a dsp, then added a new headunit, then added more amps.

Put in your new speakers, enjoy it for awhile and if its not as good as you want then you can just add a amp with a few plugs. If you want to add a new headunit, again a few plugs and its done. These trucks are pretty modular when it comes to upgrades.

 

I guess I'm confused. I've read over the years "don't bother without an amp" and "I changed the speakers and it is better" and I've even seen for gen 3 "I just changed the tweeter and it was much better."

I think this all depends on a) how loud do you listen to your music b) how much thumping bass you need and c) what do you listen to -- country? 70's rock? rap? just podcasts?

My thoughts are: if you want your music loud and clean, like the (IMHO) assholes two cars away and you can hear their music, then you need an amp. If you need crazy thumping over-the-top bass, you need a sub and an amp.

But what if you aren't into hyped up bass, or crazy loud?

I mostly listen to podcasts. And if music, I don't like it crazy loud (even alone in the car), and I really don't like hyped up thumping bass (in my speakers, headphones, anywhere). I think for me, just a speaker upgrade could help. In my '22, I'm honestly shocked how crappy the rear door speakers are. I push the fader to just the rear speakers, and they sound horrible. Try it, you'll be shocked too. I wish I could do a simple A/B comparison -- side-by-side Tacomas.

 

The issue is there is very little power to them? If I put in better speakers in the rear doors, they will still sound weak? It is honestly shocking how bad they are.

 

This has been discussed a few times. The rear speakers are actually just fine, but the headunit sends so little power to them that they just dont really work. This has become a issue for people adding subwoofers to factory systems, usually you tap the signal off the rear speakers for a high level input on a amp, but since the headunit sends so little power the amp gets very little signal and it results in bad bass output.

Im not sure why toyota did this, but I assume it has something to do with prioritizing the driver when it comes to overall sound. Having rear speakers can sometime cause reflections and muddy the sound in the front.

 

Replaced all the speakers in my 17'....was definitely a notable upgrade over the stock crap. Also added a sub to really fill out the sound.

 

There isn't a lot of point in replacing the rear speakers without an amp. The stock HU puts out very little power to the rears.

 

I did the same and there is a difference to make it worth it. However, since i play a lot of EDM the door panels vibrated and sounded like blown speakers until i took them off and added sound deadening mats to the back of the door panels. now no more vibration and am happy i did it. add the deadening mats the first time when you do it.