Car audio questions

[Squanchy]

Replacing the headunit in my truck. Going to do the door speakers at the same time. Any recommendations? My truck can accommodate up to a 6 3/4" speaker in all 4 doors and I have factory tweeters in the A pillers. Currently no sub but the amp/sub combos seem interesting. Are they worth a crap? I'm obviously not an audio guy so would like to avoid having to run wires from headunit to an amp and then from an amp to the doors using as much factory wiring as possible would be nice.

Overall goal is to turn the volume up and still have good clarity. Currently it washes out with the factory system. For reference I had a 13 Altima with factory Bose and really liked that.

 

[Desron23]

I can't recommend crutchfield enough.
They offer a lot of pre-configured harnesses that save hours. If you have a double din or newer head unit, go ahead and get a pioneer or alpine configured with carplay/android auto, it's worth it. If you don't wanna spend on wireless carplay I found an amazon adapter that works great - the only problem is occasionally, the unit/phone will have like a 3 second delay so phone conversations/switching songs sounds rough.
I can't give you specific speakers, crutchfield could give you better advice there.
I think the sub box/amp combos work well, the JBL boxes are awesome but spendy. Just be careful of the cheap ones. occasionally you can luck into a quality deal/unit but you're generally better off buying nice subs/amps.

 

[Carolinatlc]

I'd probably just go to Crutchfield and build a system. They include most of the install stuff you need. I've helped my son install several stereos in his various vehicles. Current vehicle he used a carplay ready Sony radio with Alpine component speakers in the front doors and Alpine coax in the rear doors. Made a pretty big difference.

 

[SPST]

I am doing the same thing to my new Tacoma. I have already replaced the dash tweeters with DS18 Pro St tweeters and put my Sound Ordinance 8" powered subwoofer behind the rear seat. Just these two things have made a major difference.

I have 6x9 and 6x5 Infinity Reference speakers sitting at home ready to go in the doors. After I get those in this weekend, I'm putting a Kicker 200.4 amp with DSP in.

I had a car audio place install my sub and they will be doing the amp as well. I did the tweeters and will put in the door speakers as they are all plug and play.

The stock system on the Tacoma puts out a whopping 12 watts to the front door speakers and even less to the rear.

All in, I'm just under $1k. Although I already had my powered sub that I kept from my previous car.

I also bought all my stuff from Crutchfield except the amp which I bought from the place that is doing the install. I did the entire install on my previous car but I'm not doing all that again this time.

 

[Squanchy]

The frequency range on this pair is lower than some of the others in its price range (40 vs 70) if I am understanding it correctly these speakers will have more bass? Maybe helping sound quality if I have a small/weak sub?

Kicker speaker

 

[C-doodle]

Sonic electronix is comparable to crutchfield and usually has different inventory. I usually shop both before pulling the trigger.

I would consider buying a set of matched pairs for the front. This will be two large speakers, two tweeters and two filters. It's not much more to install and you will get way better sound quality with less tuning required. Probably going to be shopping for 6.5" speakers which is good because that's usually what has the most options. Should give you some wiggle room to use a set of generic mounting rings.

I would buy another set of the same 6.5s that come with the matched pairs but without the tweeters and filters. If it comes as a matched pair you should also be able to get the same 6.5s by themselves. If your going to mess with speakers at all you might as well do all four corners. You will be glad you did.

 

[Tucci454]

I'll second the JBL amp/sub combos. I went to the local car audio place and heard them. The 8" version was louder than the 2 Kicker CVR 10" being fed ~800 watts I had in my trunk at the time. I always had good luck with Clarion and Infinity speakers. Amps and head units: Kenwood Excelon last a long time and have good features IMO.