Head Unit or Speakers First?

I just dont have the money to do all at once but i'm just wondering from your experiences which would be better to do first? I am looking at Alpine 5x7 speakers in the front and back of my extended cab 04 taco. Which i figured would be a lot better than stock but then i see guys saying on here just installing a new HU will benefit your stock speakers a lot so i'm just confused with what to do first

 

Depends.......did you slam your speakers or baby them....if you babied them and they are still good, then you will notice a bigger difference repalcing the HU first.....imo.

 

Head unit first. My stock speakers sound louder with my new head unit. I pit a sub woofer in for more base though.

 

What he said ^^^

You will get so much more out a new head unit sending out clean signal to the stock speakers, than having good speakers with a crap signal running to them.

 

I've been looking at HU"s too. My question is, Does the Stock HU handle the crossover of the front door speakers, And tweeters, Or are they wired with an inline crossover? Thanks.

 

I upgraded my HU and kept the stock speakers.

Made a big difference in volume and sound quality.

I'm sure upgraded speakers would make a difference too, but if you have to choose 1, I say go with the new HU first.

 

i just did the head unit, and it already made a BIG difference.
Im doing the speakers now and the front ones already make it sound amazing.

I say the HU first.

 

its also crazy how the old speakers are so light weight and weak, and new ones you put in are most likley a lot better

 

man upgrade the HU first, you can upgrade the speakers anytime, i deffinatly suggest upgrading the HU first, speaking out of experence myself. There is lots of time to replace the factory speakers at a later date.
I'd suggest a nice new kenwood excelon deck with 3 pairs of pre outs, front/rear/sub. And when you go to replace your speakers save and git a decent 4 channel amp, your sound quality with multiply!
I just personally upgraded from HU with internal amp and x-over to a 4 channel amp, and i heard the difference right away.

But that's just my opinion.
=)

 

thanks guys its been the general consensus that upgrading a head unit will give the stock speakers a decent boost, and i don't blast my music constantly but i don't baby them either so their in between but i've been looking at Alpine head units. But another quick question, do i have to replace my current HU with a double din one? I have an 04 so its still first gen

 

I got a Kenwood HU put in yesterday and i really like it. I don't have an Ipod so its nothing fancy i just needed an AUX input so i could use my MP3 player. I was going to go with the Alpine one but i figured it wasn't worth the extra 50 dollars just so it could be Ipod compatible when i don't even have one. But when i do the speaker upgrade, i will most likely go with Alpine speakers

 

You made the right decision. How is the sound quality difference?

 

HU.

 

sound quality def, improved the bass is pretty impressive with just stock speakers, can't wait to see what it sounds like with some Alpines or Pioneers

 

Alpines would be key, and you should deffinatly think about a 4 channel amp, even just a 50Wx4 RMS would work fine, it improves everything just that much more, trust me lol.