$2k and no new head unit. Damn it gets expensive FAST.

Ok, so I’m 55yo and have not shopped for car stereo stuff in like 25 years. But things escalated very quickly when I went to the stereo place nearby. I already did the Subaru speakers in the dash and Kicker CS in the doors. To add an amp and a sub the price shot up and before I knew it we were at $1,400 installed. What kind of money are you guys putting into your Tacos?

Mike

 

Shiiiiiiit so far stereo-wise I'm at $0, but I'd be lying if I said I was happy with it. If there is one gripe I've ALWAYS had about Toyota, it's that their stereo game is probably the worst of all the major brands. Every Toyota owner I've known since high school, and especially my moms '97 'rolla that I learned to drive on(excluding any brand-new cars) has had atrocious audio, their speakers just do not last past the 5-7 year mark, from my experience.

I guess I'm asking for some guidance in upgrading my stereo/speakers without spending the equivalent of a down payment on a used car.

Side note: I am pretty jealous of my friend's 2012 Frontier which has a subwoofer installed under the rear seat from the factory. Boom-boom.

 

I’ve spent about 5K on my Tacoma and around 4K in my 4Runner (no HU replacement) so I’d say you got another few $K to go but it seems like you haven’t gotten a good value on your first $2K so you gotta really make the rest count.

 

I’m not audio focused but I do know the Toyota head units do some shenanigans with the actual sound output so you should prioritize a head unit above speakers. The stock HU is holding you back more than the speakers, I believe.

 

^^ super true

 

In my all-kicker red label budget system, I was at $1400 for amp, speakers, sub. Then add in wiring and brackets puts me in the $1600 range. Then lc7i put me at $1800. Did labor myself so no cost there.

then the new head unit was the flagship model at the time, $1200, along with maestro RR and brackets, $1400.

so $3200 ish, not paying for labor and using middle of the road equipment

 

My JBL is absolute trash. Complete waste of money. Even after a warranty replacement it still can’t hold a station in hd nor stay connected to Bluetooth. I’m embarrassed to own it. Next taco I’m getting from factory with just a hole in the dash and pull cords to phish my own cables and speakers or it’s no deal.

 

Speakers - $350
Kicker 180.4 - $200
Kicker 500.1 - $250
Sundown SD4 8” - $300
Sub enclosure - $240
Miscellaneous wiring, brackets, sound deadened, supplies - call is an even $300

Labor - I do my own installs.

That’s over $1600, just rough math. Note that I kept my stock head unit and miscellaneous is hard to estimate since I bought what I needed but had leftovers from past installs. Yes, with labor, I can totally see $1400 with labor.

If you’re like me, I buy vehicles, modify them to my liking, maintain them, use the Hell out of them, and discard when they are literally no longer reliable or suit my needs. Dropping $2000 on audio, or whatever else makes my truck MY TRUCK, is just the cost of ownership to me.

 

I went nuts with mine, and I was doing trade work with the shop at the time even, and still spent a bunch. That was 10 years ago, and it still sounds fantastic! I recently had to upgrade my head unit, and I saved a couple hundred bucks going with a last years model. If you can find it, that's an option. I still got wireless carplay out of it, and it's a fantastic upgrade over my 10 year old hu.

 

I can do it myself all of the way up to tuning the gain and the crossovers and such.

Destin, what do you use to tap into the speaker harness? Vampire? Splice?

 

Build a t-harness. Super easy and cheap on the pre-2020 models. Need

$6 Metra 70-1761 Radio Wiring Harness For Toyota 87-Up Power 4 Speaker

Metra 70-1761,

$9 71-1761 87 - 94 Toyota Vehicle Harness

71-1761, and 1 or 2 rolls of speedwire, depending on your amp location.

 

I’m at $2,150 installed and no new head unit.

 

Curious how much was labor. I usually do all my own work.

 

$450

 

They make kits for Tacomas. Maybe you can do it yourself

https://oemaudioplus.com/toyota/tcd1600/

 

Probably around $6,000 Retail

Kenwood 9906xr
Maestro RR2
Mosconi one 90.8 DSP
Mosconi one 1000.1
Home Audio Tweeter and Focal Flax Mid Bass
Box From MTI Acoustics
2 -10" Alpine Type S (Focal Flax was out of stock)
1 Box of Hushmat
OFC Rockford 4ga Power and Ground
Connection RCA's
Ran all new speaker wire in the doors


I spent wayyyy too much time on the doors and put almost the whole box of hushmat on the 2 front door including the door panel.
Doors are pretty F'n heavy now and solid as fuck!

Putting the Sub box in was a pain in the ass. Had to pull it out a good amount of times attempting to stuff the right amount of upholstery
foam behind it.

I removed the plastic behind the seat, so the bass didn't get trapped behind the seat. I still have to cut them out and reinstall them.

I bought an extra set of rear wall plastics, so I can eventually cut them out and make them a "beauty panel".

I'm pretty sure the hog rings on the back of the seat rattle, so I'm going to have to silicone those lil bastards.


I could have gone with a cheaper amp/dsp combo, but I just wanted some "Baller Shit".

 

My first recent Audio upgrade all installed myself I’m right around $1000.00 with no subwoofers yet. That is all door speakers with head unit one amp and wires.

Around Christmas time I’m swapping my current door speakers to much more expensive Audiofrogs all around which will need a more powerful amp and putting in 2 Audiofrog GB12D4 Subwoofers which is going to need a decent amp…of course a box and more wires for everything.

So my next upgrade will be around $4650.00 or even higher because I still have not decided on which amp to get for my Audiofrog door speakers (well actually around $2300.00 because I already have both Audiofrogs with amp and box paid for) which is getting installed next Month but all in all this will be a $4650.00 plus upgrade (unless my numbers are way off)if not more price upgrade. I’ll just round that up to $5000.00 I know I will need more as I start my next upgrade. I still need to do sound deadening on my whole truck bed and doors so that may get a little pricey. So I’ll need material for that.
If my current Infinity Reference are still kicking hard by Christmas I’ll hold off on upgrading the door speakers but I’m really pushing them to the max.

I should have reasearched more about Audio equipment before relying on Crutchfield to sell me everything they thought I would want for my needs…but it’s okay I’m enjoying my current setup (except no Subwoofers yet) and I absolutely love the

$300 Alpine ilx-W650 Digital Multimedia Receiver with CarPlay and Android Auto Compatibility

Alpine ilx-W650 headunit they talked me into…but I could have bought all Audiofrog door speakers from the get go but knew nothing of them and was told the Infinity’s were the best SQ door speakers on the market. I had the money for the Audiofrogs but again did not know about them Crutchfield went way too conservative with me.
I’ll only do future business with them if they have decent deals on audio equipment I need.


I am enjoying all this upgrading it just gets expensive quick!

BTW…I absolutely LOVE PayPal credit.

…at least the Infinity’s were cheap and really sound great for their price.

I cannot wait until Christmas time and especially when I finally have those Subwoofers in my truck…just waiting for Mr. Marv to build my box.

If I paid to have all this installed it would be like another $2000.00 in labor fees screw that I’m doing all the work myself.

What is crazy is just 3 Months ago all I wanted was a decent head unit so I could play music from my iPhone using Bluetooth. What have I turned into!!!

All this amazing audio equipment in my beloved ‘05 GEN 2 Tacoma Access Cab 4x4.

 

I'm eying the oem audio set up, but the 2800 price tag is a deterrent. 2021 with jbl.

 

ive got around 600 in mine jl audio in front and focal in rear stock head unit and sounds pretty good ,im an audiophile and have a great home system so its my go to but im very pleased with what im hearing in my 19 trd

 

Any speaker replacement will be a benefit in sound quality alone. The piece of shit speakers with the dime size magnet are just bad. Same crap in my daughter's 2016 Camry. Replaced those with 6x9 Infinity. Did the same in my Taco.