Car Audio Help/Recommendations

[FAPTurbo]

I'm in want of a better audio system in my 1990 Sierra extended cab. Right now, everything is stock and I'd like to see if anyone here can give me a hand on how I should go about replacing the system, as well as give me some recommendations of speaker types and brands that I ought to consider.

From what I understand, I'm looking for a new head-unit and four speakers - two in the front of the dash and two in the pillar. But I have no idea where to start and whether I need an amplifier or if I'd like a subwoofer or not. Also, I'm unsure about wattages and how they play into things.

Most of my music is primarily rock/acoustic so I'm in no need of huge bass, though some decent low-end is always welcome.

This is meant to be a system to just listen to music from my phone or handle hands-free calling, so I'd like to keep the budget fairly modest. I'm in no hurry to buy right now, so I can wait for good deals online or in-store.

For example, these Polk Audio's look pretty good and are on sale, but I'd like to know what I'm doing before going ahead and making any purchases.

Lay it on me!

[loki]

i'd recommend polk, been using them in my MC for several years. have you used crutchfield to look at options and what fits in your truck?

my polks are driven by a pioneer from...07'? prolly older than that, idk. on a volume scale of 0 to 62, can belt out quite clean music from before the 00's rage of minimizing dynamic range...like queen, foreigner, cars,...up to about 55 volume. modern songs can come in at 45 pretty well sometimes. out of 5 1/4" and 6 1/2' speakers.

my dad has a 91 silv(c1500) ext cab. and i'd recommend perhaps concentrating on the door speakers being the ~6 1/2 inch i think, and if you want a sub, get a good 8, maybe 10 at most cause the cab isn't huge.

h/u wise, i'm just familiar with pioneer, though their cea 2000or is it 2006...? standards for RMS power, kill pioneer's internal amp rating from ..22 to 14, i think. some other manufacturers have thier's up to 18 i think.

more watts = clearer music, or louder...... takes a quality product(speaker) to do both well.

hope this info is a good place to start.

[G. David Felt]

I have gone through this with my 94 GMC Suburban. I recommend you go to Car Toys. They do an awesome job and once you tell the sales person what vehicle you have, they can show you what will fit from a head unit and still tend to look stock without cutting up the dash and let you listen to a series of speakers to find out what is good to your ear.

It is hard today to find any truly bad speakers, but each of us hear things differently and as such I recommend you listen to the speakers to make sure your type of music sounds like you expect. I also suggest you look at Bi or Tri speakers as you can get some awesome range in these speakers without having to put in sub-woofers.