Stock Headunit and New Speakers?

[terrynham]

im sorry if this is a noob question or has been addressed before, but its been bugging me, and i cant find the answer by searching anywhere

anyway, currently my sound system is stock everything, headunit and speakers.

if i want to change my speakers to aftermarket ones, will it have any better sound?
im not looking for power, just a little bit extra quality

i dont want to change my current stock headunit because its a Indash 6CD changer and having that function is rather useful for me. So therefore headunit change is out of the question currently , also pairing the steering wheel controls to an aftermarket unit might be a little hard too...

from what i can figure, Toyota says the stock headunit does 140W, and looking at the speakers it says 12W on the base...(whether these figures are true or not is beyond me )
so with changing the speakers, is it a plug and play sort of thing? or do i need to start thinking about amps and all that stuff? because id rather not get into that if at all possible.

[LiquidClen]

Originally Posted by terrynham

if i want to change my speakers to aftermarket ones, will it have any better sound?
im not looking for power, just a little bit extra quality

Yes it will if you know what you're looking for, but IMO you should still buy an amplifier with it. (you can amp the speakers with a Stock HU also, you just need a Line Out Converter, or LOC)

from what i can figure, Toyota says the stock headunit does 140W, and looking at the speakers it says 12W on the base...(whether these figures are true or not is beyond me )

I seriously doubt the validity of their claim, but I'm honestly not sure if it's true or not.

so with changing the speakers, is it a plug and play sort of thing? or do i need to start thinking about amps and all that stuff? because id rather not get into that if at all possible.

you can find some decent speakers and a good amp for relatively cheap. Toss around a budget and I will toss around some ideas

[terrynham]

cool, thanks for that

right now i dont have a budget or anything etc, im still sort of in the thinking phase of things, and whether or not what i want can be done etc...
i just dont want something to blow up or die (which seems to happen alot to things i own and buy )

ive looked at the aftermarket speakers avaliable, and most likely their maximum wattage will by far outweigh the output by the Stock HU...
will that have any adverse affects on the HU? or will the speakers only output as much as the HU gives them (regardless of their max)?

also if i dont run an amp, and just connect the speakers up just like the stock speakers, will it work? because the aftermarket speakers have much a higher rated output compared to the stock ones obviously...

ive got a 6 speaker system, at the moment im just throwing around ideas...
so right now im thinking, for the front doors and rear deck, 6x9" 2 or 3-ways, and better tweeters up on the dash

[LiquidClen]

Originally Posted by terrynham

cool, thanks for that

right now i dont have a budget or anything etc, im still sort of in the thinking phase of things, and whether or not what i want can be done etc...
i just dont want something to blow up or die (which seems to happen alot to things i own and buy )

If you research installation or have it professionally installed, you wont have to worry about that

ive looked at the aftermarket speakers avaliable, and most likely their maximum wattage will by far outweigh the output by the Stock HU...
will that have any adverse affects on the HU? or will the speakers only output as much as the HU gives them (regardless of their max)?

No adverse effects on the HU. The speakers will only receive the amount of watts that the HU puts out (unless you amplify them). For example, if the HU puts out 25 Watts to each channel and each of your speakers are rated at 65 Watts RMS, each speaker will get 25 watts which is 40 less than their ideal wattage. This is not bad for your speakers or your HU, you just arent maximizing your speakers abilities, which is why most people amplify when using a stock HU (or pretty much any HU)

also if i dont run an amp, and just connect the speakers up just like the stock speakers, will it work? because the aftermarket speakers have much a higher rated output compared to the stock ones obviously...

It should

ive got a 6 speaker system, at the moment im just throwing around ideas...
so right now im thinking, for the front doors and rear deck, 6x9" 2 or 3-ways, and better tweeters up on the dash

In my opinion and probably everyone else who takes car audio as a serious hobby, scratch the rear fills. Spend more money on the front speakers and tweeters. Also, stick to circular speakers such as a 6.5" speaker. 6x9's don't sound as good, its a fact of life. Two or three way speakers are not necessary. I would recommend a good set of components. In a component set (in case you didnt know) the tweeters are mounted seperately from the main speaker and it give better overall sound quality.

[terrynham]

Originally Posted by LiquidClen

No adverse effects on the HU. The speakers will only receive the amount of watts that the HU puts out (unless you amplify them). For example, if the HU puts out 25 Watts to each channel and each of your speakers are rated at 65 Watts RMS, each speaker will get 25 watts which is 40 less than their ideal wattage. This is not bad for your speakers or your HU, you just arent maximizing your speakers abilities, which is why most people amplify when using a stock HU (or pretty much any HU)

cool, thats great to know

just one quick question and ill get out of your hair

if for example, i only turn up my HU to 10W output (so average level output, not maximum)
will the loudness for that 10W, sound the same on a stock speaker (rated 15W Max for example), compared to an aftermarket speaker (rated at 100W Max lets say)?
i know the quality will probably be different, but im just wondering about that loudness factor
because i dont turn my music up really high (turning it up high on my stock HU, is way loud enough for me already ), so thats why if i can get better quality without getting an amp it would be easier for me.

you have been a great help with this, thanks alot for that

[LiquidClen]

Originally Posted by terrynham

cool, thats great to know

just one quick question and ill get out of your hair

I dont mind

if for example, i only turn up my HU to 10W output (so average level output, not maximum)
will the loudness for that 10W, sound the same on a stock speaker (rated 15W Max for example), compared to an aftermarket speaker (rated at 100W Max lets say)?
i know the quality will probably be different, but im just wondering about that loudness factor
because i dont turn my music up really high (turning it up high on my stock HU, is way loud enough for me already ), so thats why if i can get better quality without getting an amp it would be easier for me.

I'm not 100% sure of the question you are trying to ask, so I will repeat it. You are asking "Will an aftermarket speaker get louder than a stock speaker with the same amount of power?" It should because stock speaker's are made from crappy materials and most of them don't use the power as efficiently as an AM speaker would. (SOMEONE PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG)

you have been a great help with this, thanks alot for that

No Problem. Feel free to email or IM me if you need more help

[terrynham]

Originally Posted by LiquidClen

I'm not 100% sure of the question you are trying to ask, so I will repeat it. You are asking "Will an aftermarket speaker get louder than a stock speaker with the same amount of power?" It should because stock speaker's are made from crappy materials and most of them don't use the power as efficiently as an AM speaker would. (SOMEONE PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG)

yeah thats sort of what i was trying to ask...
if it is louder by a little bit, because its made from better materials, thats fine (thats good actully )

what im trying to say is,
like a stock speakers maximum power might be 15W for example.
and an aftermarket speakers maximum power is 100W (or more) for example.

but, if i put 10W of power into each of those speakers, will the loudness of each be more or less the same? (even though their maximum outputs are different)

its probably a pretty obvious, Yes
but just wanted to make sure

[touringcamry]

Originally Posted by terrynham

from what i can figure, Toyota says the stock headunit does 140W, and looking at the speakers it says 12W on the base...(whether these figures are true or not is beyond me )
so with changing the speakers, is it a plug and play sort of thing? or do i need to start thinking about amps and all that stuff? because id rather not get into that if at all possible.

The 140W rating is probably the total of the peak wattage values. You have 4 channels so that's about 35W x 4 peak. Peak wattage is typically a bit more than twice RMS so 12W may not be very far off from the RMS output of each channel from the head unit. I don't know the output of the stock stereo, but I would suspect it's somewhere between 12-18W x 4 RMS.

Originally Posted by terrynham

but, if i put 10W of power into each of those speakers, will the loudness of each be more or less the same? (even though their maximum outputs are different)

It would depend on the sensitivity of the speakers but I don't have any specs to say for certain. I would not expect the aftermarket speakers to be significantly louder with the same wattage. However, the sound quality will be improved.

[qwertvt]

You should look into some Boston Acoustics. In terms of quality aftermarket speakers, they have the lowest RMS (2-35). You will defintely improve the quality of sound but you still wouldn't get the most out of those using your stock headunit. If you want to increase volume and further increase sound quality, you will need an amp.