[Rich Engle]

Hello. It has been over 20 years since I have upgraded a car stereo but it’s time to do something. I love my car but want a clean sounding stereo without our going too crazy. I want to keep the factory head unit and upgrade my 6 speakers. I have been told that I will need an amp as well since speakers alone won’t make much of a difference. Would i need a 6 or 4 channel amp to power the dash speakers and the 4 6x9? I know that I will need a pac unit to integrate with the factory head unit but appreciate any info since things have changed a lot in this time. TIA

also where else can I get equipment besides Crutchfield?

 

[Technoplume]

Well Speaker wise, pioneer, kicker and Bose come to mind, but it is always to your own preference to chose a make. Stereo wise is a lot more complicated depending on how you want to make the upgrade. If you want to use the car wiring already in place, you need to know if it plug on the CAM BUS. If it does you will have to narrow your selection to compatible model, and there is 2 type of CAM BUS, high and low. The easy work around is to do some extra work and past new cables from speaker to the amp and radio. My factory radio quit on me 3 year ago and I got a NAV/Radio from AIMTOM on Amazone (some toyota model use them). The sound is good, but it lag a little when reading a USB stick and doing NAV at the same time. However it has the factory wire, not every thing work, but all the stearing button are there ( mainly lost Uconnect fonction). Some radio will need an extra box to convert signal to the right buttons. Has for AMP, the original radio system with kicker sub in the trunk use a 40 Watt amp if I'm not mistaken. But you have to chose on in function with the speaker you chose. You may also need some hardware part and a new facing for the radio if the size is different.

If you are a handy man, go for it, else you might want to drop in a store and have a talk with a professional.