Review/suggest next upgrades for my truck build.

Hey all,

I recently installed a audio system in my base single cab 2006 Ford Ranger.

The build is as follows:

-Pioneer TS-A683R 6" x 8" 4-way speakers (Only 2 speakers in the build so far, though there are two more 6x8 speaker mounting locations on the plastic rear quarter panel itself. The speaker choice was really a quick fix from best buy because the original speakers were so bad)

-Boom Matt baffles

-JENSEN MPR210 7 Character LCD Single DIN Car Stereo Receiver (Cheap 30$ unit, no real tuning, just bass/treble eq it seems, but advertises 50rms x4)

-TOPSTRONGGEAR 4 Gauge Amp Kit (Seems like decent kit, but not sure if going for some really nice wiring would improve my clarity further, which is a goal of this build)

-Rockford Fosgate R2S-1X12 R2 Shallow Prime Single 12-Inch Subwoofer Enclosure (Got this for 150 on sale, perhaps the only enclosure that fits comfortably in the cab without compromising comfort. It is sealed and 5.25"D at the bottom 3.25"D at the top. I could replace the speaker itself but likely cant go any bigger on box.)

-BOSS Audio Systems R1100M Riot Series Car Audio Subwoofer Amplifier (Gifted to me, pretty old unit, every once in a while it has whirring noise coming from inside the unit. I haven't opened and addressed yet, i think its the fan inside, definitely not the ground connection, kocking on it stops the whirring.)

-36 Sq Ft of KilMat on flat areas in doors, back quarter and rear panel, and floors

-Tesa tape on everything I could find to decouple as much as possible without installing CCF

-CCF Weatherstripping


Overview: I started this out as a nice budget build, and that succeeded, and I learned a lot along the way with the install. I got super interested in car audio and I definitely know I'm going to continue improving my build/expanding my knowledge of mobile audio.

The strengths:
-Finally, after nearly 3 months of rattle chasing and many sound dampening sessions, I can play a very large range of music at max volume/bass with no detectable rattle.
-The sound to me is relatively clean, relatively loud in the smaller cab, and has a decent range.
-A solid budget build.

The Weaknesses:
-The sound stage seems low in the vehicle. (Not sure how much I care about this yet, just an observation.)
-There does seem to be some gaps or thinness in parts of the range with some music, but i've never really heard higher end sound systems so not sure how much better it could get.
-The output on the door speakers is typically maxed, it could be a touch louder.
-The sub speaker is tuned fairly low, i feel like its being slightly underutilized, the gain could go much higher without hearing a clipped signal, but id really rather keep the distortion to an absolute minimum, and it seems that any gain will make things slightly less clean.

The future goals:
-Improve clarity as much as possible (not really sure how much more this can be done, its good now already, open to suggestions)
-Improve the range (I would like to get rid of gaps in the frequency range as much as possible to sound as rich/full as possible)
-Some power (I am hoping a bit more power can offer a little more volume and also some more clarity hopefully with a more powerful signal requiring less gain?)

I have some ideas of how to get to these goals over time, but not 100% sure what the best path would be to take as I will need to part these upgrades out over time. I want to keep addressing the weakest links first in order to achieve the greatest improvements to the system first.

Some of my thoughts on upgrades:

-2 additional speakers in empty rear quarter panels, or better speakers in the doors, or both?
-Component speakers
-Better head unit
-Crossovers
-Mid/Tweeter Amp
-Better wiring
-Better sub amp
-Better sub speaker
-DSP


If anyone has any questions, thoughts, or suggestions please share. I'd like to know what some of you would do first with this build if you had say a 200-300$ budget for the next years worth of upgrades.

Cheers!