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Best Budget Speakers

Any aftermarket brand is good. In my opinion, they all sound the same. The main difference between one brand and another is the features that comes with the head unit. The key to getting a good head unit is finding one with the features that will suit your needs. That's why I gave you the link to the Crutchfield website. They have a large selection of head units as well as a list of features for each one. It's an excellent tool to use when shopping for the right head unit.

arin said:
What are the good brands? Clarion, Panasonic, Sony, Pioneer.. ?
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shaggist said:
It doesn't matter how good the sound qualities of your head unit are. If you have a great HU and low quality speakers, you will have low quality sound reproduction. The speakers are what reproduce what the HU puts out, and most of HUs produce better sound qualities than the human ear can hear. Therefore, go with the best speakers you can afford, as they produce the sounds that you hear, and the better they are, the better the sound will be.
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I completely agree.

However - when you're dealing with the POWER differences between stock vs aftermarket HU's and the difference is 2x I can certainly see how the aftermarket HU could make a significant improvement.
It would be interesting to know if 7-9w really is what the stock system does. With an external amp that seems awfully low.

In a system with aftermarket amps a stock HU with a good LOC can perform just as well or better than an aftermarket HU.
 
Back to the original question... From personal experience, the Pioneer TS series speakers (whether 2-way or 3-way) are definitely going to be your best bang for the buck. You can pick up the 2-way 6x8s at WalMart for just a few bills, and they have a pretty impressive frequency curve. Bass is surprisingly good, especially considering the budget nature of the speaker. Power handling is good as well, iirc they'll handle around a 100 or 120 watts. You should be able to pick up a set of 4 for under $100.
 
My fav's Infinity, Pioneer, Alpine, and Eclipse. Some others look nice but I have little experience with listening to some of the others and how they sound..
 
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