Having installed a new HU I'm thinking of replacing stock non-JBL speakers with something a little better. I don't want to break the bank (any suggestions under $100?) but getting slightly better sound, particularly from the rear speakers, would be nice. I assume the speakers are standard 6.5" but I wanted to check this any other things beforehand. So I have a couple of questions

1. Front speakers: what size and how do you deal with the separate speaker/tweeters setup? If I don't want to replace the tweeters (they seem fine) then what do I buy for replacing the main speakers? Will any two-way speaker work or does it have to have a specific crossover to match the stock tweeters?

2. Rear door speakers: what size and can I hope to get much better sound from any speaker considering they're stuck behind thick old plastic door grills? My stock speakers sounds like shite... like they're inside a plastic bowl.

3. Do front and rear speakers have to match (literally or impedence-wise)? Or can I get away with replacing only one set or the other? Ideally I'd like to start with the rears and see if that suffices.

4. When I yank out the old speakers, are the wires soldered or do they use plugs that'll be easy to detach?

1. The front speakers are 6x9 ovals, the only crossover is a bipolar capacitor in line with one of the tweeter leads. You can upgrade to a better 6x9 or use an adapter to fit a 6.5" round speaker. The front speakers are not 2 way because of the separate tweeter however you can disable the tweeter and use a 2 way 6x9, one or the other.
2. Rear speakers are 6.5" round and there is no tweeter. The rears are kind of hard to hear because of the seat arrangement.
3. I would recommend keeping the speaker impedance the same for front and rear. The instructions that came with your head unit should tell you what resistance the speakers should be.
4. All speakers have plugs but they may be hard to adapt to aftermarket speakers.
Hope this answers your questions.

There is one more important thing you need to know. The 4th gen speakers incorporate a 1/2" spacer which (especially on the rears) has a special bolt pattern that is Toyota specific. You can buy spacers on Ebay made of plastic or wood but I recommend plastic in case water gets down there. The factory speakers have this spacer/adapter built in.

Thanks for the answers

Since all 6x9 speakers are wire as 2 or 3-way am I correct to assume the stock wiring will ensure they work with the stock tweeter without the need for any custom wiring?

Good to know the rear door speakers are not even two-way... that would explain why they sound so bad! Are the rear doors wired for two-way speakers? I'd read that some infinity speakers fit perfectly in the custom Toyotoa rear door mounts so hopefully there are others that are direct plug'n'play.

To me a 6x9 speaker by itself is a 1 way and yes a 1 way will work with the stock tweeter. The rear doors are not wired for a tweeter but if you install a 2 way(woofer tweeter combo speaker) you can add the tweeter that way. I know that some speakers come with a spacer but the rear speakers mount to the door in a triangular pattern with 3 screws and most speakers use a 4 screw square pattern for mounting.

Everything 6x9 on the Crutchfield site is 2-way or 3-way design, so I presume I just slap in a 2-way and the 4runner crossover will sort out what goes to the 6x9 and what goes to the tweeter.

I'm more interested in the switching out the rear speakers for now. You said they are not wired for tweeters... do you mean no high-frequency signal goes back there, or simply the stock speaker does not transmit the highs?

The stock speaker would be called a "full range" speaker I guess but it does best with low and midrange audio. The full range of the audio is sent to all speakers except tweeters but some are better at reproducing certain frequency ranges than others, for instance a tweeter is better at high frequency reproduction but could not reproduce much if any bass. In fact if you send low frequencies at high power to a tweeter you can destroy it, which is why you use a crossover capacitor which only allows high frequencies to reach the tweeter. The stock rear speakers are better at reproducing low to midrange frequencies.
If you use a 2 way speaker from Crutchfield you would not need the separate stock tweeter because there is a separate tweeter built in to the crutchfield 2 way speaker, hence the name 2 way.

OK , good to know the full frequency range goes to both front and rear speakers. I'll try replacing the rears first and see if that makes a big difference or not.

replacing the front speakers with better 6x9's and still using the factory tweeter up on top of the door panel made the biggest difference for me. You will need a 3/4" spacer/baffle for the front speakers. You can also use the factory 6x9 as a spacer, you'll just have to destroy the cone and cut away some plastic. Simple to do.

You will have to cut the factory connector or maybe just buy the speakers from crutchfield and it should include all of these spacers and connectors.

I wanna replace all my 8-speakers and 2 tweeters with Bose. Haven't done my homework yet, but does Bose sell the sizes above?

You don't want bose, trust me.

Their home theater stuff is mediocre but way overpriced...

You can get much better stuff for the same money. Check out JL Audio, Memphis, Boston, Focal, MB Quart to name a few.

Sorry to bump an old thread but I don't have enough replies to start a new thread.

I'm looking to replace my pillar tweeters. I'm looking for something that sounds good with out the super high blow your ears out tweeter sound. Any suggestions?

chuck, crutchfield has stuff that will fit...

i was curios if the 4th gen Nav head unit had its own amp or are the 5 speakers and sub driven by a standalone amp? Im thinking about updating the speakers but am curious about the power in the system

I haven’t found where anyone has addressed this, and Crutchfield has no guidance and there techs are clueless.

The 4th gen 4runners have a 2ohm system...correct? If you want to replace and/or upgrade, the easiest thing to do is to add a Bluetooth connection (most people have music in devices rather than CD’s or cassettes) and upgrade the speakers.

Well, all the threads are about swapping the head unit (which negates the issues with resistance) and speakers and Crutchfield is only concerned with the SIZE of the speakers.

Can someone who knows what they are talking about chime in please? If I replace the stock speakers with ones that are rated 4ohms, then the volume should be decreased right?

So then, unless you replace the entire system(head unit, amps,etc), you should need to replace the speakers with ones that are rated the same...right?
Are there any decent 2ohm speakers that can just be swapped out and don’t cost a ton? Is this not what everyone should be doing?

How do you “disable the tweeter” to replace the stock speakers with a single 2-way speaker?