Speaker upgrade for a 2nd gen questions

So i just got a 2015 Tacoma pre runner and I absolutely love the truck minus the stock system that came with it. Ive looked around on this site and there is a lot of talk about replacing the head units and replacing the speakers but they seem to be a few years old. I was just wondering what everyone is currently running in their trucks to give them the best sound. I listen to everything from rock to old twang country so im looking for a balanced sound. Seems from what I read that the tweeters and stock speaker set is weak as hell. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

2015 Tacoma Double Cab, standard premium head unit here.
I installed the Subaru tweeters you can get here

$98 Subaru Genuine Tweeter Kit Kicker WRX STi Forester Crosstrek Impreza H631SFJ101

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PV6F8I2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The Focal 6x9 exact fits for the front here https://www.crutchfield.com/p_091IC690TY/Focal-IC-690TOY.html (THEY ARE MUCH RICHER AND DEEPER THAN 6.5", DON'T SWITCH OR SKIMP ON THESE) and they come with wiring. Super easy!
The rear 6.5" Focal for the rear with a fit kit https://www.crutchfield.com/p_091RCX165/Focal-RCX-165.html

Had all 4 door speakers installed in about an hour and 15 minutes. The tweeters took a little more time as the connectors work for the 3rd gen better so I had to do a little easy wiring there and they took about 20 minutes each front door.

Do this and you will thank me later, I promise. The results will blow you away. The only thing that will frustrate you is the detuning the factory head unit does past the Volume 52 mark, it turns down power in the woofers while it allows power to increase to the tweeters. It is so clear and nice and full sounding that you can run it at 52 and talk over it but rock the doors off. You can safely run the factory head unit at 52 with Bass all the way up on this setup. Sounds amazing with digitally recorded music. Could use some added volume with older analog recorded music. This will make you want a powered sub to match it, which I am doing next!

 

BTW, you will laugh your ass off in sheer wonderment when you pull the stock speakers out and look at them in your hand. Hahahahaha! Truly amazed they made any sound at all.

 

I pulled the door off already to see what i was working with and just stared in amazement that they would put what they call speakers in this truck. I have looked at the focals but damn they are pricey. Are you running an amp to any of the speakers? Also with the tweeter how did you end up splicing the wires?

 

Yes, they are pricey, but the sound quality is next level and the clear and full sound was not even comparable to some JL Audio 6.5" I put in the front doors first because I owned them already. It was a huge upgrade with this combo and worth the money in my opinion. Factory amp only. Some extra spade with wires came from Crutchfield and the door speakers. So I used those to connect to the tweeters. The plug on tweeters has 4 male spades. 2 in and 2 out as the sound is passed to the door speakers after the tweeters. So I went two to 1 spliced. In other words I cut and stripped both ends of the tweeter positive and negative lines, put both bare ends into the coupler and soldered. Then took the other side and soldered in the spade connector male and female because I live in the sticks and it was a Sunday so a 2 into 1 was not a wire connector I had laying around. The female spades push onto the suby speaker males, just be careful. Also, I used wire glue or something like

$8 Electrically Conductive Wire Glue

this works, because soldering in that plug was not going to work, too tight an area.

 

If you are looking at JUST upgrading the speakers/HU and not putting a 4ch amp in, IMO you'd be wasting money to buy something really expensive. The more expensive speakers don't really shine until you put some real power to them.

I'm running 6.5" CT Sounds Strato speakers in all 4 spots, you just need an adapter for the front. Before I had a sub put in they sounded pretty good on their own, but I do have an amp on them, around 70w RMS to each speaker.

Rear: https://www.ctsounds.com/products/strato-6-5-coax
Front: https://www.ctsounds.com/collections/component-speakers/products/6-5-component-speakers

 

Are the Focal tweeters they include crap?

 

I hear what you are staying and 90% of the time I'd agree. But this speaker swap was the largest change I've ever made to a factory system by just changing the speakers. I've spent almost $80,000 on car stereo equipment and installs over the last 35 years. So I wouldn't screw around with something that's not worth it. Maybe someday I will amp the 6 speakers. But it's so good only the sub is required for me now.

 

No, not at all. I did listen to it without the Suby tweets installed. Not near as nice as with them.

 

Yeah i'll say that after seeing the stock speakers, you KNOW that anything different you put in there is guaranteed to sound much better, and i'm sure high quality speakers sound better on low power than low-mid quality speakers sound on the same low power.

 

I have pioneer 3 ways in the front and lows in the rear, with the stock tweeters un plugged it comes together real nice. pretty solid mids and highs and good bass when you want the boom boom

 

Audio upgrade is on my to do list, but then again, there is a lot of stuff on my to do list. I have a decent quality set of tweeters that I was going to throw in one day, until I took apart the door and exposed the wiring and determined I needed a bit more information to install them. Sounds like I might be able to order the speaker set from Crutchfield and then use the tweeters I have with their accessories to make it plug and play. I like that idea.

 

I would upgrade the headunit first before the speakers. Noticed a huge difference to my OEM speakers.

 

I just installed rockfords all around including tweeters and am pretty unimpressed. After pulling the paper they call speakers out and putting in some decent aftermarket ones I expected a huge difference but it honestly sound a really similar to the stock ones. I’m hoping it’ll sound better after I put an amp in.

 

c808nner that is a bummer! Sorry man. I should of recorded the difference on mine. It was that impressively improved. I am sorry I didn't do that now, but family and friends who have spent time in the truck are thoroughly impressed with the difference.

 

I kept the factory head unit but replaced all speakers. Went with Kicker 6x9 in front lower and Memphis 1 inch tweeters. I put Kicker 6.5 in the back and also installed a Kicker 4 channel 300 watt amp, no subs but still have plenty of bass and plenty of volume. The stock speakers are a joke!!!

 

Sony XAV5000 headunit
JL C-2 component speakers front and rear
JL 10TW3 subwoofer
JL JX500 Mono amp
JL JX 4 channel amp
Noico sound deadener on back wall
Mr. Marv custom sub box


Sounds amazing and bass is insane, couldn’t be happier

 

Just installed a new HU and front speakers in my 2014 Access Cab. My original Entune with navigation kept resetting and essentially kicked the bucket, so I thought why not.

I bought this Alpine unit: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_500ILXW650/Alpine-ILX-W650.html

Then I got these Pioneer speakers on a great sale: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_130TSG690/Pioneer-TS-G690.html

The sound is way better than what it was, and yes, you will be amazed the stock speakers put out sound at all. They look like something I made in elementary school.

Best part about the Alpine HU is that with the wiring kits from Crutchfield, it retains your backup camera and most of the steering wheel controls. It's also literally plug and play if you have them do the wires for you.

Bad part is that you have to wire the mic that comes with it to use hands free calling and Google. I can upload pictures of where I mounted it if you want, out of the way and no wires.

 

Oh, you can also buy the amp from Alpine that mounts to the back of this unit. Pretty awesome and will be a future upgrade for me to get even better audio.

 

did you use the pioneer speakers for both front and rear??