I have been out of the car audio game for quite some time.
Last time I was in it Infinity Kappas were the speaker of choice and Pioneer Priemer for the subs.

My wife's Highlander has the upgraded JBL system and it is pretty much what I am looking for.
I wish I would have looked for the JBL upgrade in the van but I did not.

Looking to swap out the 6x9s in the van and the 6 3/4" in the truck.

I am looking at the JBL GX602s. As it appears to be JBLs midrange (price) speaker and I am very please with the JBLs from Toyota. I am not looking for anything out of control. The truck will likely stay with the factory head unit as it is a gigantic pain to swap anything else into it. Just need new speakers as one is blown.

The van is just a bit anemic on the low end. The factory head unit will stay as it is being replaced under warranty at the moment but the service guy says they are replacing them left and right so I am guessing this one won't last long either and I will swap it out for an aftermarket unit since it will be out of warranty and no way will I pay $4k for the factory unit.

Planning on doing an amp?

Its been over 10 years since I did any aftermarket stereo work on my own vehicles. Just last month i bought 4 new 6x9s and 2 new tweeters for my truck, all 360 watt kicker d series. Got them all for about 200$ on amazon. My factory stereo was too weak to power them and I have the upgraded bose crap. After some research I settled on the newest Kenwood single din with all the new stuff, Bluetooth iheart pandora android auto etc.

It blows me away how great it all sounds now. Built in crossovers, sound enhancements etc. No subs, no amp needed. The kenwood picked up that i had 6 speakers and had me tell it their size location and set freq ranges. It wasnt that easy 10 years ago.

I've done a lot of speaker upgrades over the years, and your question may be a bit hard to answer. Case in point. I tried three difference sets of 5x7 speakers (from three different manufacturers) in my F-150 before settling on some Polk Audio's, because quite frankly, they had the best sound and balance in that vehicle. There are a lot of good speakers out there, but how they perform in your particular vehicle(s) is going to be the $100k question.

Oh, and EmpireState's question about adding an amp is a good one. Many aftermarket speakers aren't going to come alive unless you put some power to them. Even a small, quality amp would likely make a huge difference in sound quality.

Bigdeal, I called Crutchfield recently looking for some information and they said that you can damage certain aftermarket speakers by not having enough power go to them, not sure how true that is or if they were just trying to upsell an amp as well.

I have hi power amps in my home theater system, never blew a speaker, JL audio is doing really good on car speaker, in fact because of that they are getting in hi end home audio.

quote:

Originally posted by EmpireState:
Bigdeal, I called Crutchfield recently looking for some information and they said that you can damage certain aftermarket speakers by not having enough power go to them, not sure how true that is or if they were just trying to upsell an amp as well.

I am not looking to do an amp which is one reason I was looking at the JBL GX series as Crutchfield says it works well on a variety of wattage levels and work well with factory units.

Actually I think I may add an aftermarket unit after all to the Z71.
This single DIN unit has a screen for a backup camera.
A little small but better than nothing and a little more power to the speakers.
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_....html?tp=20217&avf=Y

Nothing fancy. Don't need Bluetooth in the truck a simple USB cord or headphone jack will suffice for hooking up the phone.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

The van is just a bit anemic on the low end.

A truer understatement has never been typed in the history of internet forums.....But I digress.

Last year I emailed Crutchfield for a recommendation for new speakers & head unit for my 2005 Dodge Ram P/U. The Crutchfield rep suggested Polk Audio speakers & a Kenwood head unit for my price range.
I had already considered the Polk speakers, & questioned the rep's choice of Kenwood over an Alpine (my long-time preference in a number of vehicles). His reasoning was spot on, & the Polk speakers have been great in my P/U.

I like Focal for speakers. I'd ditch the factory unit, pick a set of speakers and add a small amp. It'll be worth the hassle.

For mids and highs I put in some Polk Audio and for subs I did Sundown Audio all powered by Arc Audio amps.

Woofersetc.com and Sonicelectronix.com seem to be the best for prices.

Can't go wrong with Pioneer speakers for the interior. Best Buy usually has good prices on the speakers. Just pick them up and install them yourself. I also like Rockford Fosgate Punch subwoofers/amps.

I'm a Dynaudio guy through abdbtbrough, but it's price-pointed for special projects only in my works and requires good amps and usually custom fitting. Probably not what you are looking for at this time.

For simple upgrades I've tended to stay with Kicker the last few times because I've got an inside connection that hooks me up. I wasn't typically a fan of their full range speakers but I went with them due to my discount. However, the last few sets of their higher end coax's where really very good in their price group.

I replaced the 3 way in the front of my G37 with some 3x way Focals. I found a killer deal on them.

After the tweeter break in I've been really happy with it. Dang tweeter was harsh for the first week. Then it mellowed nicely.

quote:

Originally posted by craglawnmanor:

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

The van is just a bit anemic on the low end.

A truer understatement has never been typed in the history of internet forums.....But I digress.

Last year I emailed Crutchfield for a recommendation for new speakers & head unit for my 2005 Dodge Ram P/U. The Crutchfield rep suggested Polk Audio speakers & a Kenwood head unit for my price range.
I had already considered the Polk speakers, & questioned the rep's choice of Kenwood over an Alpine (my long-time preference in a number of vehicles). His reasoning was spot on, & the Polk speakers have been great in my P/U.

I'll drop Crutchfield a line and see what they suggest to match with the factory Toyota system with the plans to go aftermarket if it dies.

For the truck Crutchfield had the JVC Single din headunit with rear camera capability on silly clearance and were offering 50% off JVC speakers with head unit purchase.
It is just a work truck and I am not too worried about quality as it is circa 2000 factory with blown speakers at the moment. So for $160 shipped for head unit, two sets of speakers and all the needed install gear is a no brainier. Now just need to grab a camera.

quote:

Originally posted by EmpireState:
Bigdeal, I called Crutchfield recently looking for some information and they said that you can damage certain aftermarket speakers by not having enough power go to them, not sure how true that is or if they were just trying to upsell an amp as well.

Generally speaking, the single worst thing for any speaker anywhere is too little power. Pushing an amp too hard is what causes distortion which is DC and will eventually basically weld the voice coil of the speaker together

Conversely, it is almost impossible to have too much clean power.

And lastly, the wattage ratings on most amps and speakers are all but useless. There's no head unit on Earth that actually outputs, say, 25W/channel of clean power in the same sense that a home Hi-fi Amp puts out 25W, so don't get hung up on those numbers - they are a super loose guide at best.

The answer is to buy quality speakers, and a quality amplifier with more power than you need, and to simply not turn it up as much. Headroom is good, underpowered is bad.

As for brands, it almost doesn't matter / it's almost purely subjective. There hasn't been a breakthrough in either car speakers or amps in a very long time. Find any major brand you like the sound of. Most have been around for a few decades now.

If considering adding an amp, I've been super happy with my alpine power pack. Is a small 4 channel that mounts behind the deck and wires directly in line of the stereo. You don't even need an amp wiring kit or to run power/ground/remote. Much more clean power than a head unit puts out.

quote:

Originally posted by BigJnSA:
If considering adding an amp, I've been super happy with my alpine power pack. Is a small 4 channel that mounts behind the deck and wires directly in line of the stereo. You don't even need an amp wiring kit or to run power/ground/remote. Much more clean power than a head unit puts out.

Are these not proprietary to Alpine units? Granted it has been years since I looked at them but way back when I bought my Alpine Unit I thought they were proprietary and was going to get one if I ever did aftermarket speakers with the Alpine Unit. I never did.

Can it be SIMPLY wired to a factory unit? Or does a whole lot of splicing need to be done?

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
As for brands, it almost doesn't matter / it's almost purely subjective. There hasn't been a breakthrough in either car speakers or amps in a very long time. Find any major brand you like the sound of. Most have been around for a few decades now.

The truth is actually the reverse. In an effort to drive pricing down due to competition, manufacturers of most consumer level amps have cheapened them substantially in terms of components, further making claims of wattage irrelevant. Try driving some of these new amps anywhere near their limits and you're guaranteed two outcomes...Completely distorted music, and a surface hot enough to fry eggs on. I have three old (like 10+ years or so) Kicker amps that would totally eat their modern day equivalents.

quote:

Originally posted by BigJnSA:
If considering adding an amp, I've been super happy with my alpine power pack. Is a small 4 channel that mounts behind the deck and wires directly in line of the stereo. You don't even need an amp wiring kit or to run power/ground/remote. Much more clean power than a head unit puts out.

If this is the unit you're talking about, I've heard a lot of positive comments from people who have installed it. Just make sure your expectations are appropriate given its not designed to shake the windows. I've actually considered using one of these in my truck if I ever get around to upgrading that system.

Id leave the oem speakers and add an amp. Youll be amazed.