Would I be gaining anything from keeping my factory HU, but replacing the factory speakers?

 

Not sure what kind of truck you have or what came with your truck but you would probably gain a little with new speakers. If you added an amp with those speakers it would help a lot more. And then a new HU would probably help a little more.

Whats your setup now and what speakers are you looking at?

 

not enough to justify your purchase. save your money for

1) headunit
2) component speakers
3) amp

i ran my truck for a year and a half with stock headunit and what i thought were "stock speakers." back then i didnt realy care. i ended up pulling the door panels for fun one day and saw some pioneers in front and then some blaupunkts in the rear (i am the second owner, these were put in by the first owner. they sounded maybe 5% better than stock speakers on other peoples trucks. . . . its not worth a damn of money, to be honestly

i then moved to my alpine headunit, amp, and previous type R components and it was a ridiculous diffrence. like from eating **** on a stick to a fine restaurant filet wtih wine sauce over it.

 

If you are looking for just a little more SQ and volume, then a nice set of coaxials that will work good with the HU (high sensitivity rating, relatively low power handling) then you can get a nice noticable difference.

If you can swing it, maybe add an amp to the factory HU and a set of aftermarket speakers.

 

YES, it will sound better. The factory speakers are paper junk.
Maybe Socal858 didn't notice a difference, but he never heard the factory units in his truck!!

Get a set that doesn't need a lot of watts (RMS) and they will sound best with the factory HU.

 

Will it be a difference, yes. Is it worth the price to performance difference, no.

Like the others have said...save up for an amp to power them and a HU if you can. But, this is just my opinion. You should do what sounds good to you and what makes you (and your wallet) happy.

 

ive heard and worked on quite a few trucks with stock speakers.

have you ever heard properly amped components for comparison?

 

Sure, the more you spend the better it gets.....but lets remember the original question.

The answer is stilllll.....YES.
When I replaced my factory speakers with 4 Polk ex357 speakers there was a big difference in my opinion. It sounded alot better than the full range all paper OEM speakers....and it was only $70 for all four!

 

I SEE A LOT OF PEOPLE BASHING "PAPER" SPEAKERS. DID YOU KNOW THAT THE BEST AND MOST ACCURATE, NOT TO MENTION THE MOST COSTLY SPEAKERS IN THE WORLD HAVE SUB - MIDBASS - AND MIDRANGE CONES MADE FROM "PAPER"? THE MATERIAL IS NOT AS SUITABLE FOR AUTOS BECAUSE OF THE EXTREME TEMPERATURES, AND HUMIDITY.

FOR YEARS, I WOULD TAKE CUSTOMERS WHO WERE ON A BUDGET AND WORK WITH THEM ONE PHASE AT A TIME TO GET THE MOST FOR THEIR MONEY, AND IN MANY CASES, KEEPING THE STOCK SPEAKERS, ADDING AN AMP TO THEM WITH THE PROPER CROSSOVER POINTS, AND ADDING A SOLID SET OF TWEETERS (ALONG WITH A SUB OBVIOUSLY) WOULD GIVE THEM THE SOUND THEY WERE LOOKING FOR AND SAVE THEM A FEW HUNDRED DOLLARS ON AFTERMARKET SPEAKERS AND LABOR.

YOUR SPEAKERS ARE A LOT BETTER THAN MOST PEOPLE GIVE THEM CREDIT FOR. IT'S YOUR HEAD UNIT THAT STINKS. BUT MANUFACTURERS GO TO GREAT LENGTHS TO GIVE YOU INTEGRATED CONTROLS AND LOOKS (TAKE THE OLDER FORD TAURUS FOR EXAMPLE, WHAT A PITA!!) SO PEOPLE LIKE TO KEEP THEM.

DISTORTION, IN MOST CASES, IS CAUSED BY A LACK OF POWER, NOT TOO MUCH POWER.

IN MY OPINION, MOST OF THE CAR AUDIO STUFF OUT TODAY IS A LOT OF MARKETING HYPE!! CARBON FIBER CONES, AND TITANIUM CASING AND ON, AND ON...

MAKE THE BEST USE OF WHAT YOU HAVE, YOU ALREADY PAID FOR IT(ALOT MORE THAN YOU THINK I MIGHT ADD). FIND SOMEONE WHO WILL TELL YOU THE TRUTH AND NOT JUST TRY TO SELL YOU SOMETHING!!