Worth upgrading the speakers with stock headunit?

Plus one. Get the OEM Audio Plus and never look back. I got mine OEM Audio Plus from eBay for $900a a few years ago.

 

What a nice coincidence that I found this conversation this morning. My driver door speaker is blown and I'm shopping around for an upgrade. So I was thinking of replacing the 4 door speakers and adding an amp & sub, plus sound mats, keeping my head unit & tweets original. Any advise of what brand of 6x9's for the doors work well in these trucks? I'm basically a rocker, but get a good metal song or old school base, and the volume gets cranked up. So I guess what I'm saying is I'm looking for a good all around speaker that'll handle me, and not blow like the one that came original with the truck just did. Thank you for any advise you can shoot my way.

 

I replaced the front corner tweets, door 6x9's and added a small under-seat powered subwoofer. Happy with the results, all in less than $450 plus my time.

Don't bother replacing the rear door speakers, the head unit will not provide enough power to those.

 

Here is the path I took, so it may be helpful in your decision hopefully. My first upgrade was the to the Subaru kicker tweeters. Slightly noticeable, but negligible at best. Some stuff it was noticeable, but I’d say for the majority, it wasn’t. I then upgraded to door speakers (front and rear). Slightly better bass response, but once again, only noticeable under certain conditions. Then I swapped head units. Wow, what a difference! As someone who used to sell audio equipment (I sold home stuff, but got my start installing car stuff) I can tell you that there are people that will claim they can hear a difference and that $20K for a set of home speakers is worth it. I am not saying that there isn’t a difference, but at some point you’re just out to impress your dog I think. But I would definitely recommend a new head unit.

 

I just did the tweeters up front with DS18s off Amazon for like $65 and it is very noticable. Thinking about the front doors too. Sub'd.

 

Were you able to retain any key car features with your new HU?
Im not a fan of the sluggish stock HU but i use the cameras pretty often when i park at home inbetween my other cars.

 

From the SR i expanded any and all my features.

 

Subaru tweeters, Kicker 6x9 = very improved audio, very. Added Kenwood powered sub and now it is nearly great. Still makes me want to get a 4 channel AMP, but a somewhat inexpensive and very big improvement mod.

 

So none of this for you then?


A basic system doesn't have to be about volume. Or blow drying hair. I used the 2 amps, speakers and small sub to produce clean, full range sound that is pleasing to the ears. I still know that the factory deck is the limitation.

 

I upgraded my speakers to JBLs that I has lying around, along with the kicker tweeters in the dash. Made a surprising improvement over stock. Will not blow you away with output however a an improvement over the paper speakers. I will be adding a JL AMP and LOC soon that are just sitting in the garage.

 

So from the research I've done, sound deaden the truck and it'll improve sound quality by leaps and bounds.

 

As someone who primarily listens to podcasts, I think the speaker upgrade alone will be a waste. You aren’t gaining efficiency in the majority of cases, so nothing is getting louder. And you aren’t going to notice a difference in sound quality. I can tell you though that having the stock head unit turned up all the way isn’t as loud as my aftermarket head unit a 1/3 the way up. So I can actually hear the podcasts much better.
Also, it was asked about the functionality of aftermarket vs stock. In my case (a 19 SR) I gained functionality via the maestro controller. I can actually see independent tire pressures now as opposed to just the dummy light, and there are a lot more telemetry functions (more gauges) available. That being said, the only thing my head unit did for additional functionally was change the color of my center display from blue to green to orange. I know that 2020+ and I believe the majority of 3rd gen TRDs in general do a lot more through the head unit, so definitely look into that.

 

@coma toy
What does splitting the wires mean? Can you take those wires and put them onto the front speakers and omit the rears?

 

This! ⬆️

I did all kicker plus a sub and amp. Tweeters first and listened to it. Definitely improved the sound. Same day did the four doors and the rears are worthless with the stock HU. The front made a difference. Not mind blowing but there’s an improvement. Amp and sub and made it a lot better. I’d definitely do the front and tweeters again. If you’re just gonna listen to the radio a lot, don’t waste your time and money.

 

I replaced the dash’s with Subaru tweeters. I notice very ignorable difference. What is a sub?

 

Sub is a subwoofer.

 

I have to go with Anchovy, OEM Audio+. Awesome sound. It was designed for the Taco.

 

yeah can’t forget sound deadening. I did all 4 doors and behind rear seats entirely

 

I have the JBL head unit and swapped the speakers only. Although, this may not work for the regular speakers, here a link to my install with parts list in the spoilers: JBL Speaker Upgrade

 

I don't recall what the regular back door speakers look like, but these are the JBL speakers (orange) and the replacement: