Worth upgrading the speakers with stock headunit?

I did infinity reference 6x9 components up front and regular infinity 2 ways in the rear. A little sound deadening in the doors.... Very noticeable difference. Now granted I now have a kicker key amp and a powered 8" rockford sub on the way. These things can snowball pretty quick. I do intend on keeping the stock nav head unit though.

 

I replaced the tweeters with the Subarus and HUGE difference in highs as others have stated. I swapped the fronts for the Kicker 47KSC6704 & added rears, which I had to hardwire it being an SR, with the same. Huge improvement in all departments, but I just couldn't get much sound out of the rears. I learned, after reading a few other posts on here, that the stock HU sucks at providing a balanced output to all 4 speakers. This weekend, I'll be adding the Alpine S-A32F so everything has the same power hitting it. I'm thinking that will be fine for me, but if I need more bass.....I'll do some more research and work on that...

 

Is there a pre-made harness for that amp available?

 

I have the stock head unit (not JBL). I replaced my tweeters and front door speakers with Pioneers (this kit from Crutchfield) and as other have stated, there was a noticeable improvement. Bass is a little more punchy, mids are more full sounding, and I was suddenly actually aware of my tweeters, as they were much clearer sounding. For $150, it was definitely worth the upgrade.

If you go for an upgrade, when you remove the stock 6x9s you'll be amazed at how cheap and flimsy they feel, and how tiny the magnet is. It's surprising that they sound as good as they do.

 

Did the tweets, did the kickers w/stock head unit but for maximum pleasure, the JL Audio sub w/amp is the missing piece of the puzzle.

 

I have the JBL sound system but want to upgrade my tweeters and speakers and sub but keep the head unit, what is recommended to switch to? What Brand of tweeters and speakers would you guys recommend?

 

Try here: JBL Speaker Upgrade

Another more inexpensive option is in the works here.

 

https://www.jbl.com/car-speakers/CLUB322F-.html to replace your factory tweeters
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_109STAD96C/JBL-Stadium-962C.html to replace the door woofers (just use the woofers, you dont need the tweeters)
Pick your own shallow 8 inch sub and ignore the rear speakers.

 

It's absolutely worth it. I replaced all the speakers, added a sub amp and sub behind the rear seat.

Don't suffer with the stock system, you can make huge improvements and keep the OEM headunit.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-new-audio-build-thread.552764/

 

Radio Display,
So I was wondering about the picture on my display, as seen in the attached photo, do I have to see the column to the left of the SXM stations or does it appear there all the time. I think in my wife's Camry you just see the stations expanded and no column on the left side. Please advise. Thanks

 

Thanks, I will check out all my options.

So I take it that the radio is a JBL and the speakers themselves are all jbl knock off junk or just junk?

 

They are JBL OEMs, so they are just mass produced to be slightly better than the speakers coming out of the factory next door. They have to balance cost, weight, and performance. Usually performance is the first thing to get cut down to meet cost and weight.

 

I ordered everything from Crutchfield. They have several packages for the wiring of the amp, but I'm not aware of any single harness. The RCA to output cables are just wire on one end, so I'll be splicing those myself. Everything else is basically the same. Here's what I used. I bought my own speaker wire.

 

I'm just waiting for a bit of warmer weather

 

Worth it? Yes but only if you listen to your music loud. The stock head unit, as mentioned, doesn't put out that much power. However I can say with first-hand experience that if you actually crank up that volume you WILL get those front 6x9's to move. What most people are disappointed about after replacing the factory speakers is that they seem to have expected more sound at lower volume. Thats not going to happen unless there is amp installed or the head unit replaced.

I also did the premium (non-jbl) audio upgrade for under $250 thing with the subaru tweeters and kicker door speakers. First off I will say that the tweeters on the 6x9's adds wayyyy too much tweeter and I have the tweeters set almost as low as they will go in the sound options. Otherwise I set the mid and bass to +3 and my usual listening volume is 45-48 when listen to youtube. Sometimes a bit less if I'm listening to youtube music since the app pumps up the volume on many songs before it sends it to the vehicle. At this point I'm around $250 in and its absolutely the best bang for the buck/time invested. Can it be a whole lot better? Hell yeah, but if it had sounded like it does now from the factory I would have never even considered doing anything with it.

 

No friends with garages or covered place to work?

 

I have that same head unit. I thought mine was non jbl. Is that the JBL head unit?

 

JBL systems will have "JBL" in the bottom center of the radio, and a badge on each door panel.

JBL and non-JBL radios look the same with the exception of that logo in the bottom middle.

 

Just taking my time.

 

I replaced all my speakers, And threw in a small alpine Amp under the driver seat.
JBL Club 9630 6x9

$68 JBL GX602 180W 6.5" 2-Way GX Series Coaxial Car Loudspeakers

JBL GX602 6.5
Subaru Tweeters

$290 Alpine KTP-445U Universal Power Pack

Alpine KTP-445U

It's loud enough to rattle door panels at higher volume. And can go louder than anyone should be driving on the road with it at about 50 on the stock HU. Set gain on amp so even at max HU volume, speakers will still be safe and not maxed out. Sound deadening eventually but that'll more for road noise than anything in my scenario. Bought all those used, but I'm sure with some sales you can find some deals.