Budget speaker upgrades?

That's indeed budget. But I forgot you want cheap. My bad...

What @1P7R9O4 said. Buy once cry once. I just dont feel @idiggplants you will be happy with "cheap" speakers.

 

in that case, ill be happy with the factory speakers.

 

if you’re door speakers are blown, IMO I’d say they’d be equivalent to what was there originally from the factory. I don’t think they’d be much, if any, of an improvement over factory. I’ve had better sound results when adding a powered sub (ie kicker hideaway) to factory speakers to change the headunit settings to not drive bass to the door speakers when not wanting to spend time/money on a better system…specifically, this integrated well without having to change out factory door speakers… based on reviews of those linked speakers, it appears most use them to replace blown speakers to get sound back not as a true upgrade to original factory sound.

ultimately, expectations and what sounds *better* can be very subjective. I personally wouldn’t hassle taking my door panels apart and installing something that was, at best, a marginal improvement-but that is my preference.

 

I had some similar to this in my 2000 with an aftermarket head unit. They did not sound great. Or even that good. Clarity improved a little. But it was all tinny and overly bright regardless of the settings. Cheap metal tweeter domes. The 6.5 mid speaker had better clarity, but lost most of the bass response the factory speakers had. Wasn’t happy with them but ran them along time. Got some $99 Rockford separates to replace the 6.5 and the door tweeter and they are an improvement, but definitely need more power. Power adds strength to the music and control at lower volume levels. It’s not just about loud. It’s more precise and has more depth with the right amount of power. Think about how an amp looks. Where would you hide that inside of your radio? You can’t. The amp in the radio is weak sauce. The power rating is low and probably a bit overstated.

 

thanks to you both. the sub route would be a good one to go with but im really not trying to put forth the effort to run wires from the battery to the back seat, as well as loose the precious space in the cab. im in the early stages of setting this thing up to be a camper, and will be jaming stuff all over the place to keep the bed free for sleeping.

but mostly the wiring. lol.

 

I hear you…if you get to the point of just wanting to improve the factory sound without a lot of work, take a look at the kicker hideaway. You can find them on sale pretty regularly around $200 for the 8”. It has a built in amp and is a really small footprint. It will be a substantial upgrade without being too costly or labor intensive. Honestly, it is probably about the same labor time running wires/installing as what is involved in replacing the door speakers.

I had to make custom mdf mounts when I replaced my door speakers in my tundra, then have to splice or harness adapter for connecting door speaker wires. The 6.5” door speaker opening isn’t just plug/play in my experience. Tundra has a larger opening/mounting points for the door speakers than what work with generic supplies adapter plates with aftermarket speakers.

 

can’t go wrong with the Kicker door speakers. Good quality that won’t break the bank.

 

thats something i might entertain. looks like it can fit under the passanger/drivers seat. rca cable and remote wire to the headunit, 8g wire to the +terminal(fused), 8g wire to the negative terminal. not looking to spend the $250 for one, but maybe once i get some other toys sorted it will end up higher on my want list.

thanks!

 

NP… it will be the single best upgrade you can make to your stereo without having to spend $$ on a full system. Also, if you get heavy duty velcro strips and just attach the hook side under the speaker, it will adhere to your carpet so it doesn’t slide around or require drilling to attach it in place.

 

funny you mention that, that is exactly what i was thinking... some sort of way that i could easily remove it if i wanted to gain back the space for a camping trip. a quick connect for the + and -.. bullet connectors for the remote wire, and av plugs are quick enough.

 

It’s kind of like changing suspension. You could get a spacer lift, or full blown coil overs and change all of the parts. Different options just depends on what’s more important to you

 

not sure exactly what wharto is responding to this thread for... but it sent me a notification so it was a good reminder to do a follow-up.

i ended up going with an under the seat solution... actually went with a blaupunkt 8"... cheap as crap and something a lot on here would push off as not worth it... but for me, going on 6 months now, its absolutely beyond what i needed. $90 for the unit, plus $30 for the wiring kit. i think anyone other than the audio obsessed would be more than happy... a few friends have gotten the same item for their various vehicles since hearing mine.

 

I also went with an 8" all-in-one under the seat. Picked up a used Kicker Hideaway 8" on FB marketplace for $80. Another $20 for the wiring harness got me going. Huge upgrade and really rounds out the sound. I've been doing my system piecemeal.

Step 1. New headunit
Step 2. New speakers
Step 3. Subwoofer
Step 4. 4 channel amp (not done yet).

Adding the subwoofer at the price I got it was a GREAT bang-for-the-buck upgrade.

 

So did you keep the same stock door speakers and only upgrading to the blaupunkt? Did that only give you the additional bass or clearer sound?

 

kept the stock door speakers. just have an aftermarket headunit, and a small sub. i cant say that its clearer. what it did allow is a fuller sound and it let me apply a crossover to the oem speaker and remove a lot of the bass from their duties. you can definitely turn it up louder without getting any clipping or distortion.

 

Oh ok. I'm in the same boat as you as not wanting to spend a whole lot for some upgrades. 2020 non JBL but with apple play touch screen so I have no intentions on doing an aftermarket head unit. Just trying to get ideas for either just speakers or plug and play amp with/without speakers.

Also not really looking for additional bass so a separate sub is out of the picture too.

 

What did you go with? Simple speaker replacements and that's it?

 

neat-o.

 

I went with a similar unit, a blaupunkt 8" powered subwoofer on Amazon for a little over $100. I installed it today and I'm truly impressed how good and strong the sound is now!! The aftermarket head unit lets me utilize the crossover to take the bass out of the stock speakers and now I can crank the volume without them clipping or distorting. That little sub cranks out some pretty good low end too...even when I'm barely trying. I'm absolutely impressed. Couldn't be more stoked with the sound inside my truck now.

Blaupunkt 300W 8-Inch Amplified Subwoofer

$108 Blaupunkt 300W 8" Amplified Subwoofer

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MA627HA

 

Sorry to revive this thread. But like many of you, I have been going down the rabbit hole and found your posts to be super helpful! Have a 2019 Tundra Crewmax without the JBL package. I am going to do a much deeper dive later, such as customizing space under the backseat and replacing all the speakers eventually, but for now, I am going to go with the

$349 Alpine KTP-445U Universal Power Pack

Alpine KTP-445U and Kicker 11HS8 underseat sub. My question I am hoping you could clarify - You said that the Alpine amp was a plug and play swap, but also posted the

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

AHH-4438 harness. Looking at the amp online, I only see one place to plug in a molex. Is that what the harness is for, to convert the two plugs from the truck to then tie the wires into the Alpine harness? Or are there in fact two plugs on the Alpine deck and they just aren't pictured? The amp looks like it comes with two wire harnesses.

Also - do you think the 10"

$360 Kicker 46HS10 Hideaway Compact Powered Subwoofer, 10"

Kicker 46HS10 will fit under the driver seat instead of the 8"? I'd rather turn it down a bit but get the deeper bass.

Thanks for all of your help on these forums!

 

Quick breakdown/explanation for your 2019 non-JBL. Head unit connects directly to/powers the dash corners, and then the signal is looped from each dash corner to one side of the center speaker which is dual voice coil. The head unit also connects directly to/powers the rear tweeters in the doors. The head unit has 4 channels of amplification doing ~20w rms @ 4 ohms, Dash left (and center left) Dash right (and center right), rear left tweeter, rear right tweeter. The factory amp under the passenger connects directly to/powers the 4 door woofers, 6x9 in front, 6.5 in rear. The door woofers are all 2 ohm 35w.

For your future plans do you plan on keeping the stock head unit or replacing it? If you plan on keeping it, for the same price (and actually less right now since it's on sale) I'd suggest the Kicker Key 4 channel amp. Similar size/power to the Alpine Power Pack but the Kicker has an auto-dsp function that would definitely be nice if keeping the stock head unit. If replacing it, any amp would be great since an aftermarket head unit would have a flat output signal, but with the factory head unit there's some factory EQ going on that the Kicker Key would fix.

As for the

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

AHH-4438 harness and the Alpine Power Pack (or any amp): The AHH-4438 has two plugs, a 10 pin and a 12 pin. These female plugs connect to their male plug counterparts at the factory amp location. For whatever reason, rather than having all the inputs on one plug and the outputs on the other, Toyota decided to mix inputs and outputs across the two plugs. To replace the factory amp, you just need to match up the inputs/outputs from the 10/12 pin to the inputs/outputs on your chosen amp. This can be done "on the bench" prior to installing the amp so when you go to install it you just have to plug in your power, ground and remote if applicable. On the Alpine Power Pack, you have input on one side (the RCA plugs, you can either get speaker wire to RCA adapters and leave the plugs on, or cut them off and connect directly to the input wires on the 10/12 pin AH-4438), and then on the other side you have your outputs which again, just match up to the corresponding wires on the 10/12 pin AH4438. One thing to keep in mind is that if you plan on adding a powered sub, you'll need inputs for that as well. Easiest thing to do would be add some extra pig tail wires to the front or rear left/right channels to send input to the powered sub.

As for the Kicker 10", best bet is to grab a tape measure and use the dimensions to get a rough idea if it'll fit:
If you want to go the extra mile in ensuring it will fit, grab some cardboard, tape, and scissors and make a cardboard box with the dimensions to test sliding it under the seat. Looking at the dimensions, I think it looks like it would fit under your driver seat, but best to measure or do the cardboard box test fit.

If you have any questions about any of the above, feel free to shoot me a PM or better yet start a fresh thread that way others can see the setup as well.