best speakers for our tacomas

hi, i'm looking on changing my stock front and rear speakers, does any one have some good references?

 

im looking on spending from 100 - 300 for some nice speakers

 

There are a metric fuck ton of speakers that would sound great in your truck but answer me a few questions and I'll try to help you out as best I can. What's your budget, what are you plans for the audio portion of your truck, do you want to get a new headunit?

 

i have a good budget like 400 for spekers and some more for amplifiers and subwoofers, i already have a sony 7'' head unit that gives out 56 watts rms

 

are infinity speakers a good option?

 

anyone try sonicelectronix online store? Or does Crutchfield price match?

 

I like infinity but am using Pioneers now.

You need to go to an audio shop, listen, and decide for yourself. Nobody can tell you what will sound good to you.

 

There is a audio video section, check there.

Also there are a couple hundred previous posts asking the same question.

Search tab it will net you alot of answers faster.

 

If you buy a decent amp and good speakers you might find you don't need a sub. I'm a fan of the Polk MM lineup--the 6x9 coaxial fits in our front doors and puts out a ton of bass if you amp it (I had a pair at 150w rms each speaker). The sound quality is definitely up there, but they are still coaxials, so you will get better sound quality out of some good components like the CDT HD-690 6x9 system. I have run Infinity and they have great clarity but lack bass and lower midrange compared to Polk. CDT has better sound quality than either Polk or Infinity imo.

 

My stereo is the SR5 stock system. Sounds ok, but there's a huge difference from the upgraded JBL and systems that were in my last two cars. How much will upgrading the speakers ONLY improve the sound? I don't have a budget to speak of right now. My budget was absorbed just by buying the truck!

 

Personally I think the stock speakers soun great. They put out decent bass and sounds good overall. If anything like a previous post stated upgrade the headunit. From previous experience just upgrading the headunit made the stock speakers sound 100 times better.

 

Not to mention just about any aftermarket head unit will have about 2x the power which will also make the stock speakers sound better. Lots of 'better sounding' aftermarket speakers are designed to run on more power which means that the low power output of the stock deck will underpower them and they could actually end up sounding worse. Either way, you'll want an aftermarket head unit for best sound (even if you add aftermarket speakers & an amp you won't want to run them off of your stock deck for best sound) so I would start there before you start with all your speakers.

 

I don't really want to mess with swapping out the factory head unit because all of the extra features that I love. I'm also NOT looking for bolt rattling bass or power. I listen to rock for the most part and want to crank it without losing so much power. How much would adding an amp to the stock head help?

 

You can get any features you love in the stock deck and then some. By swapping out the stock deck you're not going to get bolt rattling bass because it's simply not possible with the factory speakers. Aftermarket head units generally have 50 watts x4 channels peak and around half that continuous. Factory decks such as this one usually have 1/4 those numbers which just isn't enough to get quality sound out of anything. Then, the aftermarket head unit will give you external RCA outputs if you want to add an amplifier down the road. To add an external amp to the factory unit you will need to do a high/low converter and the performance after that isn't going to be that good since you're not using a clean signal to amplify. This means that anything present in the line will be amplified, including noise. Sure you can do it, lots of people have, it's just not ideal. You can get a quality head unit for not much more than some speakers and in the end it will yield much cleaner, louder sound even with the stock speakers. In addition you can get USB inputs, AUX inputs, Bluetooth built in so you can have hands free calling & stream your music wirelessly and all sorts of features that the factory head unit doesn't give you. So, if you want better sound w/o breaking the bank or adding external items (more things to break) I still think an aftermarket head unit is the best bet. You don't have to go that route but I've done car audio & video systems for decades and based on what you've said you want I think you will be happiest changing out the factory deck for one with more & cleaner power and more features versus speakers or speakers & amps. If you like the features your deck has now you'll be amazed by what you were missing out on once you have an aftermarket head unit. Up to you.

 

Yes, but they like power to drive them. Sound fantastic when matched with power.

 

By the way, you don't have to take my word for it. Click this and then this. There's LOTS of posts like that on this forum and every other car forum on the internet because factory head units suck out loud. Aftermarket head units put out not only more power but they also have better sound with cleaner power and better equalizers which make a world of difference. I mean, you're welcome to replace your stock speakers with an aftermarket speaker that's designed to run off of low power which will yield the best sound with the stock deck but it also limits yourself down the road should you go with an external amp or better deck or something. You'll pay more for a full set of speakers and the labor to install them then you will a decent head unit and your sound will be marginally better... at best. Worst case scenario you end up with speakers that require more power to function (most aftermarket speakers) so your head unit will under power them and could potentially sound even worse. There's no chance that your speakers will sound worse by upgrading your head unit. It's just not going to happen. Now if you do that and down the road you want more sound you can easily upgrade by adding in an external amp running clean RCA inputs the way amps were meant to be fed or you can even upgrade to an aftermarket speaker since now your deck power is over 2x higher than what you have now. I'm just saying...

 

WTF are you talking about? Extra features? The only extra feature you might lose is functioality of the right side steering wheel controls.

You do not want to put a different amp to the stock speakers. Get a new head unit. Or you, who knows nothing about car audio, can ignore the people who have tons of experience and make audio decisions based off imagined misconceptions.

 

I think the stock Tacoma sound system is the very worst stock sound system I ever heard. Its ehat drove me to rip out everything down to the bare steel door panels, floor, and roof and put several grand into a stereo upgrade.

 

wow, way to be a dick..

 

It was pretty clear that the OP wasn't getting the sugar coated helpful approach.