Budget speaker upgrades?

I have a truck with the non jbl, basic bitch stereo. i replaced the headunit with a decent sony android auto unit. I am not looking to rattle doors... id just like a bit more bass and some better quality sound. I was thinking about just upgrading the front speakers and letting the rears be.

there are so many options out there from

$39 Pioneer F-Series TS-F1634R 6.5” 2-Way Speakers (Pair) – 200W Max, Balanced Sound + Smooth Treble, Great Stock Replacement, High-Efficiency Speaker Designed for OEM Power

$25 pioneer(seeing these is what made me think to make this thread), to $40 kenwoods, to $50 pioneer, to $80 JVC, to $90 pioneer, to 120, to $200... and so on..

i wasnt sure if getting $50 two ways would be an upgrade, or if they would just simply be the same as stock. how much do i need to spend to see an upgrade?

im not interested in components, i want the ease of just popping out the door cards and popping in new speakers. If the answer ends up being spend $100 for a pair of speakers, ill likely just roll with what ive got. in which case, im glad i asked and didnt waste money and time for install on cheaper speakers

thanks yall.

 

Going to be following this thread. I have an 07 crewmax that has some pretty tired speakers. When I had my 2000 jeep replacing the speakers even with cheap ones made a huge difference, just from the speakers wearing out over the years.

 

The cheaper speakers I put in my older truck sounded, well, like cheaper speakers. Clarity improved some. Sounded a little too brassy though. Bass response was worse. Many of the more expensive options also require more power and you may not get the best sound out of them without adding an amp.

 

Following because I wanna upgrade mine too

 

Did they sound cheaper than the factory speakers? I feel like there has to be somewhere between factory base trim level, and installing an amp to power expensive speakers, no?

The Sony is 25w rms/55 peak. I feel like that should power something reasonable, right?

 

Adding an epicenter might help. Sadly if you want bass, you really need a subwoofer. Better quality speakers should always improve the sound but you are always limited unless you change the head unit and upgrade the amp. Sound dampening would help too, so it keeps the sound in.

 

I don't have the same truck as you, but I've upgraded a 15 SR5 non JBL, and a 19 Pro, non JBL. In the 15 I upgraded the speakers first and I didn't notice much of a difference. The head unit it was woke the system. In the 19 I got a head unit first which woke the system up, then speakers. Again, the speakers didn't do much.

It wasn't until I amp'd the door speakers that I noticed a difference that made me feel like the investment was worth it.

Yiu might consider getting a cheap under seat powered sub, then tweak the crossovers a bit to ask for a little less low bass from the doors.

I'm also on newer trucks with less worn speakers, and I have a little bit of tinnitus, so I might be full of shit.

 

I just went down this wormhole & love the end result. Here’s a copied post I made in this thread that helped a lot when I was doing my research: https://www.tundras.com/threads/2017-tundra-sr5-sound-system-upgrade-proposed.21657/

So I wanted a quick & easy way to improve audio quality. Coming from a Tacoma I was happy with the kicker upgrades that everyone else had done. Now in the Tundra I thought that if I just upgraded my speakers that would do the trick. Nope. It actually made it sound worse? Then I realized how many moving parts this truck has audio wise lol.

So I started researching everything else. My truck is non-jbl with factory amp & head unit. I did a quick google search for “best bass 6x9s” & came across the JBL GTO series. But like I said I was very underwhelmed.

Next I purchased the kicker hideaway powered 10” sub. That instantly added the bass I desired. I was happy with that. But I knew that my speakers were still under performing. So I did some more research & came across this alpine booster amp.

Wow. Just wow. Like everyone else has said, it’s an instant improvement. The JBL 6x9s were thumping. So much so I didn’t even realize that my powered sub wasn’t working after the amp change. Good thing I checked because I realized I did need to run the amp turn on wire that everyone else doesn’t need to run.

I’m now very happy with the way the Tundra sounds, but I’m going to upgrade the dash speakers also while I’m at it. Then I can call it day knowing that every aspect has been upgraded.

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread. It’s a very price conscious way to achieve very good results!

PS- I haven’t done the dash speaker upgrades yet because everything else sounds so good as is

 

So you upgraded the door speakers and their respective amp?

 

Once you start upgrading it’s hard to just do one item to fix the issue. Upgrading speakers perform best when upgrading the amp to power them. Which means you have to run RCAs and best way to get RCAs is by replacing the head unit.
They do have work arounds but it doesn’t really help if you eventually plan to replace the head unit.

 

Yes. And added a powered sub.

 

I added the alpine amp that used existing factory wiring with the harness & information mentioned in that thread I posted. The head unit only controls the dash speakers, not the door speakers. The added amp (without rca cables or anything to the head unit) pumps up the door speakers. If you add a head unit, that amplifies the dash speakers better.

Replacing the amp under the front passenger seat is the easiest way to get better sound. But you might as well do the other upgrades like you mentioned. I did mine in stages & happy with how it turned out.

 

Would you be able to provide Us with links to the items you purchased?

 

seems hard to believe that the answer to... "what are the cheapest speakers that will be an improvement over the factory speakers" has turned into... well, first you have to get an amp, then speakers, then an amp and subs. that aint happening. no way, no how. i dont want to spend that amount of money... i dont want to spend that amount of time. and i dont want to lose that much space in the truck.

like... are the factory base model speakers that good that the only way to improve is to spend $1000? seems hard to believe. im not looking to blow people away with the sound quality. just a small upgrade is fine.

 

I think the key will be finding the speakers with lower rms requirements that are solidly constructed with decent enough materials. Sound is a product of the energy applied to the speaker and how the materials used react to it. I shared my experience with cheap replacement speakers ($50 for 2 6.5” pioneer coaxials) and gave my impressions. I know what your asking is who got reasonably priced replacement speakers that sounded much better than stock and how much were they? I struck out at $50. Who scored? What did it cost?

 

yeah, i dont mean to be unappreciative on any of the responses, but i feel like we are getting a bit off the rails. if im saying "If the answer ends up being spend $100 for a pair of speakers, ill likely just roll with what ive got." in my opening post.... then suggesting a $1000 stereo upgrade seems a bit irrelevant... and the answer should simply be... "you arent able to do what you are asking".

exactly this. has anyone seen improvement from $50 speakers? $75? $100? with or without an aftermarket stereo?

 

I suggested a pair of $95 “best bass” 6x9s & a $250 amp. And also stated that if you didn’t do anything, that plug & play amp might be what you’re looking for. I’d say start with that

 

Alpine KTP-445U Universal Power Pack Amplifier

$328 Alpine KTP-445U Universal Power Pack

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00871XF3S

2010-2019 Toyota Tundra (w/o JBL Audio) AutoHarnessHouse.com Factory Amp Upgrade Harness AHH-4438

$18 2010-2019 Toyota Tundra (w/o JBL Audio) AutoHarnessHouse.com Factory Amp Upgrade Harness AHH-4438

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BSEGCQW

Sorry I stated $250 above, looks like $220 with the harness needed

 

I guess Ill start with that.

 

little hard to follow what you are saying. my 2013 cannot fit 6x9s, can it? also, i have no amp under the passenger seat.

 

Sorry to butt in…would this option be the same for a 2013 SR5?

I too seem to be missing factory amp

 

I’m not sure. I didn’t realize you guys were in 2013s. It says 2010-2019. I have a 2021 and it worked well. It’s a direct replacement for the amp under the passenger seat, so I guess check if you have 1 of those lol. Then that harness allows you to wire up the alpine & it’s plug and play into what’s going into the stock amp. Unplug stock, plug in alpine. No running power wires to battery or anything, it uses what’s already wired from the factory.

 

Mine said they couldn’t fit 6x9s either. Crutchfield and others are wrong. Plenty of guys stuffing 6x9s in the front door like me. You just need the metra door speaker adapters

 

This is what I’m looking for only now wondering if my trick has equipped wiring being that the amp isn't present

 

They call them key amps and they’re actually designed to be wired into & placed behind head units to give them extra juice. Someone on the forums figured out they’re also a good replacement for our factory amps that only power the door speakers in the 2.5 gens. Maybe try and see if someone’s added an amp to a 2nd gen head unit like they’re designed for? Does the head unit on a 2nd gen power all the speakers? 2.5 they do not.

 

yeah... thanks to the mods on that one. i had this originally posted to the 2007-2013 forum for that very reason, but apparently they felt it best to move it to a different forum without even notifying me, which resulted in the confusion. at least if i was notified, i would have appended my original post to make it more clear what vehicle we were talking about.

for my situation/question though.. im not interested in spending $250. so its speakers powered by my 25w RMS headunit. if what ive got is what ive got, then so be it. just seems like a better speaker would help some, but perhaps the factory speakers are better than i expected.

 

Supe's 2018 MGM SR5 CM SPORT Build | Page 6 | Toyota Tundra Forum (tundras.com)

 

Unfortunately, without spending a decent amount of money, it won’t be worth the time or small amount of money spent to buy cheap speakers to replace what you have. To get better sound out of decent or better speakers, you’ll need power (ie amplifier) to drive them. The factory speakers use lighter material (paper & foam surrounds) that don’t need a lot of power to drive them, where aftermarket speakers use a rubber surround and higher quality woofer/cones material. These generally need more power to control and drive effectively.

 

so what you are saying is the 25 rms coming out of the headunit wont power anything better than the factory speakers?

$39 Pioneer F-Series TS-F1634R 6.5” 2-Way Speakers (Pair) – 200W Max, Balanced Sound + Smooth Treble, Great Stock Replacement, High-Efficiency Speaker Designed for OEM Power

these guys(the ones i linked in my OP) are rated at 25w rms. im assuming that they simply wont be any better than the oem speakers?

 

im not sure what im looking at there, but i dont think it qualifies as budget.