2011 Double Cab - Need to improve sound.

Hi all! First post to say a couple of things.
1- Never owned a foreign make of ANYTHING until I got my Taco last May. I love it. Should have had two or three of 'em by now!

2- I have the factory sound system in mine. It is decent enough. But there are times when I wanna hear something LOUD. And what I have in there just ain't enough. I am in my forties, and not looking for competition level bass. But I would like to tweak what I have.
I have an Audio One (formerly GO-HO) near me, and would like to appear to know what I am talking about when I approach them.
A little more bass, and a little more treble. Just enough to have bite. Or better put, about a third more overall sound than I have with factory.
Anyone with ideas? Much appreciative!

Happy motoring, Y'ALL!

 

I replaced all my stock speakers with kenwoods, bought a dual 10" sub enclosure for behind the back seat and put in kenwood subs, i added kenwood tweeters in the back doors and run a kenwood ddx512 head unit which has excellent abilities for the average joe. Plenty of great sound and bass, extra bass available if you turn up the sub outputs from the headunit. Or then again, you can turn the subs off at anytime as well.

 

Here's a link to another thread where i posted pics of my set up.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/audio-video/193789-sub-box-install.html#post4219223

 

If you want good, crisp sound, start with a head unit. You can ajust the inputs and frequencys. Then theres the choice of slim or full screen. If you want nav or video, go 2 din. Id recomend Pioneer or JVC, because of the price it should be around $300-400. Alpine, JL get upwards of $500-1000. Really easy to install. See www.*********.com. single din shound be around $100. Might be able to upgrade to a higher end brand, alpine, ect.

If your looking for more bass, but not to much, just a clean sound, a 8'' to 10'' should work. The bigger you go the more distorted the sound becomes. Myself, id only go with JL or alpine. Now you need a amp to run the sub off. If you want speaker too, go with a 4 channel+ sub. If you just want the sub, than any single channel cheap mono amp should work. www.crutchfeild.com has a lot of good information too including reviews.

All depends how much you want to spend. Then you can decide if you want a higher end system with more factory equiment or a cheaper all aftermarket system.

 

what you are looking for is "clean" power. the distortion that you hear when you turn up the volume with your stock head unit is the opposite of clean power. if you are going to add more volume to your current setup, you are going to want an amplifier. although going with certain brands is not a bad idea (and whoever recommended jl audio and alpine - two of my favorites), what you want to look for, no matter which brand, is an amp with a high signal to noise ratio (S/N). the higher the SN (measured as a %), the cleaner the power. don't be too focused on the wattage either. a high power amp with low SN is going to sound like crap. class "D" amps are among the higher quality amplifiers you can buy but you will pay for that quality. fyi, some amp manufacturers (and salespeople) will quote "peak" wattage per channel, which is different from "RMS" power. the RMS number is the one you want to compare, always ask for that number, not peak.

if you have the budget, add a nicer head unit with a quality 4 channel amp and you are going to be very happy. if funds allow, add a subwoofer with a dedicated mono amp and you'll be even happier. last, upgrade your factory speakers after you amplify your whole package and you will be pretty much done. good luck.

 

Great responses! And that first set up is nothing short of sick!

Another question(s).
Who makes the factory speakers? And if I just had the existing speakers replaced with say Alpines, or the like, might that boost me up without a whole lot of amping or adding woofs?

 

I think the best "bang for your buck" would be a new head unit. This was the first thing I did in my stereo build and the difference was pretty substantial. Start with this, as you can get a pretty nice HU for not much coin. If you're still not happy, then you can explore your options from there. But, this would be a very good start and based off your original post you just may be completely satisfied with the results.

 

This is good advice. My first upgrade was a new head unit and it made a big difference. After that, toss in a little bit of bass package and you'll probably get what you're asking for.

Try to choose things with future expansion in mind though.

 

The stock speakers may seem like crap (and they kind of are) but they are incredibly sensitive. This means that on the limited power of the stock HU they will still produce acceptable volume, bass, etc. Simply replacing the speakers is disappointing to a lot of people because they gain clarity but lose midbass response.

As others have said, a good HU is a good place to start. If you like the stock HU I would recommend adding an amp and new speakers. If you want to do it in stages add an amp to the stock speakers, and then replace them as you get the funds/blow the speakers (which is a distinct possibility if you like to listen loud.)

If you think you want to add a sub then do what Dolbytone said and add a HU and a sub/amp combo or powered sub. It just depends on how much you want to spend, and what level of improvement you will be happy with.

 

Got better sound when i replaced my head, like said above. All the outputs/frequencies can be ajusted. I dont think the speakers have a brand, there just generic toyota speakers, unless you have the jbl upgrade package, there would be stickers on the speaker covers and the stock head.

head would be about $100+ and 4 alpine speakers + amp $350-400, depending if you get a deal, Amazon ect. Then id look at a sub if your still not getting enough bass form even the aftermarket speakers.