Upgrading stock radio

hey everyone. I want to upgrade my 09 Tacoma with a Bluetooth touch screen radio. Can you recommend any head units that aren’t too crazy expensive and tell me what I would need to install it. Lastly, any recommendations for speaker upgrades?

Thanks for the help.

 

Look up some media head units if you dont need gps or dvd.

i want to move my backup camera from the mirror to the screen. But thats too much electrical for me..

 

https://www.crutchfield.com/ is a good start to see what your options are for what to use. They include every harness and adapter needed to install it so it makes it easier. I use them for all my stuff and their customer service is pretty good.

I've got the Alpine ILX-W650 because it was the cheapest ($300 Oct 2019) I could find with Android Auto and front/back camera. It's been good for the most part, some cut outs with AA but not sure if it's the unit or the cable connecting to my phone or my phone. Overall been pretty happy with it.

 

What was the difficulty for the install?

 

Not difficult really if you're a little tinkering inclined. Requires just some trim removal tools (can use fingernails/flat head screwdriver if you're careful), and 10mm socket to remove/install brackets to the truck. It was an easy project for me but I consider myself somewhat mechanically inclined so YMMV. If you buy from Crutchfield they have good instructions and tech support to walk you through if you get stuck, youtube videos to see what you're getting into beforehand is a good idea too. I highly recommend doing it yourself just to save the money vs paying someone to install it because it's not difficult.

 

I feel like there was a kit that allowed this circulating on here back in the day.

 

I put in a Pioneer DMX-1500NEX a few weeks back. Total all in was $380ish from Crutchfield.

It took me longer to merge the two harnesses than it did for the actual install. It was probably about a dozen or so wires to match up colors on and wire together. Went with the $50 or so dollar Crutchfield add on kit with the schosche surround and the CRUX wiring harness that kept the steering wheel controls.

 

Very Happy with my Dasaita unit, had it for a month. I didn't want to go with any other brand that didn't have it integrated properly.

 

How are the speakers? How noticeable is the difference?

 

Didn't have what integrated properly?

 

How robust are these aftermarket units? Any issues after install?

 

didn't have the panel integrated flush and streamline, was looking for something that would look as close to oem as possible
So far no issues with the unit, steering controls work well and are programable, sound quality is also better than stock imo

 

I kept the stock speakers, the amp portion of the new HU is about the same wattage as the old stock, so all in all it sounds maybe 10% better. If it were a more high end head unit I'm sure more of a difference could be heard, but it's a fairly inexpensive one so I wasn't expecting massive changes.

 

I upgraded to a Kenwood kdc-x701a couple years ago. That breathed a little life into these crappy stock speakers...
Any head unit is an upgrade IMO.

@dtaco10 like anything else, you get what you pay for. Not all manufacturers follow the same QC standards.

 

I had a lot of trouble with screen glare, so I tried this flip screen model (the screen angle is adjustable).

It comes with Google play (you can install any app you want). Backup camera input and aux video input/ front camera. There's an app that lets you save the video (dash cam) to an sd card or thumb drive. Setting up the steering wheel controls was just stupid easy.

It only takes up a single din, so that gives you a pocket to put crap, or mount a cb.

Only two things I don't like about it. The boot time is like when I restart my phone and this one doesn't have screen angle memory.

For this install I bought, the head unit, single din dash kit, and radio harness adapter. The speakers came from Crutchfield. I just got what they recommend.

*Pioneer makes one with screen position memory ($450 though).
Well here's some pictures:

 

Whichever you do, get the Metra install kit. Matches the texture of the stock bezel, looks pretty well stock when installed.

 

Would you upgrade the speakers? What would you get?

 

Have you upgraded your speakers?

 

Absolutely upgrade the speakers. Can't tell you what to get though. Speakers that I like you may not.
Grab a CD of some familiar music and go audition some speakers. I use the Cincinnati pops disc, Time Warp. By far the highest quality source I have and the dynamic range.... Huge, 20 stories.
Dynamic range is the range of volume recorded onto the disc.

 

Speaker upgrades... @boogie3478 has you covered
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHJ95TTmFk8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvkEY6FZ6Gs&list=PL-IN_9dyC2sBrE5W3_aUlh7I0xRu5wuz-