Hi there.
I bought a new 2014 Toyota Tacoma a couple months ago. Its a regular cab at the base trim level (2 doors). There is a 5 1/4" inch woofer and 1 inch tweeter per door. The factory head unit is this thing Toyota calls 'Entune', it's a touch screen nav-less head unit. The functionality is OK but the sound it produces isn't the best. The included factory speakers are awful as well so this all adds up to a pretty poor listening experience. I'd like to upgrade the entire system with something that will produce great quality sound at a reasonable volume. I don't want any subs. I've heard its difficult to get good sound out of the stock head unit that comes with these trucks, and oftentimes, once you do everything necessary to get good sound out of that stock entune system you've already spent more money than you would have simply replacing the head unit. On that note, I have some questions:
Can any of you speak to whether its possible (and maybe even easy) to get good quality sound out of the newer toyota entune units? I'm not at all attached to the entune system and I have no qualms about replacing it, but if I could get good sound out of it without extensive/expensive modification I wouldn't mind keeping it. That said, I don't need or want a touchscreen, I don't use navigation, and I never plan on playing videos in my car (not necessarily relevant to entune but it is relevant to aftermarket receivers). Just about every aftermarket receiver out there now has the features I use regularly (bluetooth streaming / usb / aux).
Most of the component speakers I've been looking at to replace the stock ones are anywhere from 20-40 watt RMS. It looks like most of the aftermarket head units are 18-22 watt RMS. Assuming I had 40 watt RMS speakers and a 22 watt RMS head unit, would I need an amp (i.e will the speakers be underpowered)? I don't need ear shattering volume, just loud enough to hear everything in my music at highway speeds (i have somewhat noisy offroad tires).
As far as head units go, I was checking out some Pioneer ones and I had some questions. Pioneer DEH-80PRS CD receiver at Crutchfield.com The Pioneer DEH-80PRS caught my eye with all its hand-waving about sound quality and accuracy. I consider myself to have a pretty discerning ear but I also realize that in many cases the ultimate bottleneck on sound quality is the 320 kbps mp3's i'm listening to over bluetooth, so after a certain point the returns are diminishing with "audiophile"-branded hardware. For a system as simple as I am looking for, would there be any point to get this Pioneer unit over a lesser equipped one? It sounds like the main selling points are the 16 band EQ, timing delay configuration, auto-tuning EQ, all things I would never need. If I wasn't using any of that head units fancy features would it still (potentially) produce better quality sound than another head unit or is there no reason to get it if I don't plan to use any of those features?
My initial plan was just to get a simple single DIN head unit, a simple modestly powered 2 channel amp (or maybe 4 channel so I could have the option for a sub later down the line), and new component speakers for the doors. If there's no reason to get that particular Pioneer unit if I'm not using the fancy features, I think I know the alternative head unit I'll get. Any recommendations for 2 (or maybe 4) channel amps and component speakers?
Thanks for reading my wall of text.
edit: I think my doors can accomodate either 5 1/4" or 6 1/2" speakers.
I bought a new 2014 Toyota Tacoma a couple months ago. Its a regular cab at the base trim level (2 doors). There is a 5 1/4" inch woofer and 1 inch tweeter per door. The factory head unit is this thing Toyota calls 'Entune', it's a touch screen nav-less head unit. The functionality is OK but the sound it produces isn't the best. The included factory speakers are awful as well so this all adds up to a pretty poor listening experience. I'd like to upgrade the entire system with something that will produce great quality sound at a reasonable volume. I don't want any subs. I've heard its difficult to get good sound out of the stock head unit that comes with these trucks, and oftentimes, once you do everything necessary to get good sound out of that stock entune system you've already spent more money than you would have simply replacing the head unit. On that note, I have some questions:
Can any of you speak to whether its possible (and maybe even easy) to get good quality sound out of the newer toyota entune units? I'm not at all attached to the entune system and I have no qualms about replacing it, but if I could get good sound out of it without extensive/expensive modification I wouldn't mind keeping it. That said, I don't need or want a touchscreen, I don't use navigation, and I never plan on playing videos in my car (not necessarily relevant to entune but it is relevant to aftermarket receivers). Just about every aftermarket receiver out there now has the features I use regularly (bluetooth streaming / usb / aux).
Most of the component speakers I've been looking at to replace the stock ones are anywhere from 20-40 watt RMS. It looks like most of the aftermarket head units are 18-22 watt RMS. Assuming I had 40 watt RMS speakers and a 22 watt RMS head unit, would I need an amp (i.e will the speakers be underpowered)? I don't need ear shattering volume, just loud enough to hear everything in my music at highway speeds (i have somewhat noisy offroad tires).
As far as head units go, I was checking out some Pioneer ones and I had some questions. Pioneer DEH-80PRS CD receiver at Crutchfield.com The Pioneer DEH-80PRS caught my eye with all its hand-waving about sound quality and accuracy. I consider myself to have a pretty discerning ear but I also realize that in many cases the ultimate bottleneck on sound quality is the 320 kbps mp3's i'm listening to over bluetooth, so after a certain point the returns are diminishing with "audiophile"-branded hardware. For a system as simple as I am looking for, would there be any point to get this Pioneer unit over a lesser equipped one? It sounds like the main selling points are the 16 band EQ, timing delay configuration, auto-tuning EQ, all things I would never need. If I wasn't using any of that head units fancy features would it still (potentially) produce better quality sound than another head unit or is there no reason to get it if I don't plan to use any of those features?
My initial plan was just to get a simple single DIN head unit, a simple modestly powered 2 channel amp (or maybe 4 channel so I could have the option for a sub later down the line), and new component speakers for the doors. If there's no reason to get that particular Pioneer unit if I'm not using the fancy features, I think I know the alternative head unit I'll get. Any recommendations for 2 (or maybe 4) channel amps and component speakers?
Thanks for reading my wall of text.
edit: I think my doors can accomodate either 5 1/4" or 6 1/2" speakers.
