Gonna plan on going with this one
Kenwood KDC-MP242 CD receiver at Crutchfield.com

And these speakers
Pioneer TS-G6843R 6"x8" 2-way car speakers at Crutchfield.com

I've got an 2009 ex cab fx4 and the factory audio is just pathetic.
I'm not looking for bass, I'm not looking for an award winning system.

I just want this to be a big improvement over the factory system and not break the bank. I actually want to be able to turn UP my speakers for once.

Thoughts/opinions/recommendations are welcomed...

 

get thisKenwood Excelon KDC-X494 CD receiver at Crutchfield Signature and these Power Acoustik NB.1 (nb1) Tweeters Car Speakers Car Audio Car Audio, Video, & GPS Navigation - Sonic Electronix it will do the trick

 

sorry but not lookin for tweeters, anyone else?

 

Kenwood decks are pretty good, and that one has a lot of features for the price. Looks like a good buy to me. Pioneer speakers are great for the price. In my quest for amazing sound quality I have upgraded, but in my old vehicle I had pioneers all around. They sounded good and went very loud without distortion. I would recommend them for someone like you who is looking to upgrade from stock without spending hundreds of dollars.

Edit: I had one pair of 6x9's and one pair of 4" or 5" ovals, so I haven't used the exact speakers you are looking at but I was impressed with the speakers I had for the price.

 

loving my kenwood KDC-x993. and kenwood x682c Kenwood Excelon KFC-X682C 6"x8" 2-way car speakers at Crutchfield Signature

 

I do like that deck though...

What adapter or deck kit harness would i need since it's a single din again?

 

if you order it from crutchfield it comes with it

 

crutchfield ftw! excellent customer service if you have problems and they send you the kit and instructions for your vehicle

 

yeah crutchfield has the nicest kit out there i wish i would have gotten from them but i'd reccomend them. thats the next place i will by a radio, but if you wanting something cheap go to sonic electronix or online car stereo

 

Kenwood Excelon KDC-X494 CD receiver at Crutchfield Signature

went with this one, ordered yesterday but it's still only preorder. says it's supposed to ship in Feb. but who knows when it will get here. pretty psyched about this HU. Now just gotta find some speakers

 

I recommend these speakers....
Cheap Car Audio: Speakers: Pioneer TS-A6882R 6" x 8" 4-Way 280-Watt Speakers

Has great reviews and you can amp 'em up pretty good.

 

You might want to wait for new speakers... your headunit alone will make your factory speakers sound much better.
The additional wattage makes the speakers sound pretty darn good.

also, if you upgrade your speakers to anything other than the low wattage Pioneer TS-G6843R that you originally chose,
you will need much more wattage then your headunit can produce to create the same quality of sound.
You will need a separate amp for it to sound good.

I know you don't want bass.
but a sub woofer is arguably one of the best improvements you can make to any woofer-less system.
You don't have to crank the sub up and rattle your truck its adjustable.
you just need it there to "fill in" the missing notes that just can be produced properly by the smaller speakers.
it makes a dramatic difference so much more "rich" sounding.

...Or you could be like many people and buy 200w RMS front speakers and run them off of a 18watt headunit.
Crank the **** out of them and make your ears bleed from the distortion.
then try to convince me that they sound better then factory.

If i were to recommend speakers though I would probably buy the pioneers you were going to get solely because of the low wattage requirements.

 

You should get tweeters they clean everything up. It sounds so good with them.

 

for head units i like kenwood for speakers i have boston acoustics and they sound awesome Boston Acoustics S85 6"x8" 2-way car speakers at Crutchfield.com

 

I have almost the same deck, except mine has the USB and controls the iPod through the deck. I'm liking it a lot right now.

 

I ended up going with this deck

Kenwood Excelon KDC-X494 CD receiver at Crutchfield Signature

I like it so far, the usb control is slick and still has the aux input. As for better sound well that remains to be seen. Still got the factory speakers and the improvement is marginal. Still looking at speakers.

 

in my opinion you cant go wrong if you use component speakers (separate mid/bass and tweeter with a crossover to separate the signals)

the best thing is you have a little more lee way in power ratings, since the crossover cleans up the signals going to each speaker so your head unit starts really turning on. and dont think just because your HU comes with a hipass/lowpass filtering system it works anything like a crossover, plain inad simple, it does not. yes, they do send close to the correct signal, but the downside is it also cuts out some of the signal going to your speakers, so you lose some low end sound. (which is usually where the subwoofer picks up)

my advice, do some searching, mostly for component speaker sets. look only at the RMS rating, ignore the peak as it is highly unlikely you will be listening to music that loud consistently.
I spent less than $100.0 for 3x component speakers sets off eBay, 2x 5.25 round and 1x 6.5 round for my car, and it sounds incredible. even without a sub (waiting for a line filter to remove engine noise) once I add the sub then I will have a great sounding "full range" system, yet nothing that vibrates house windows from a mile away. oh, and the sub is the only thing using an amp, and only a 100w amp at that.

 

If you go with that system you will be pleased. I too am upgrading my system but I know for sure that I want an HD unit and also I will be cutting the rear speaker holes a little larger since I want to slide some 6x9's in there since it will give me just a touch more bass since I do not want to put a subwoofer in it at this time. I hope you do well on your install and make sure to write back and let us all know how it turns out!

 

I just got this Kenwood deck Kenwood KMR-440U Marine CD receiver at Crutchfield.com
and these speakers Kenwood Excelon KFC-X1730P 6-3/4" component speaker system — also fits many 6-1/2" openings at Crutchfield Signature
I must say that I am impressed with both never been much of a Kenwood fan and after owning mostly Alpine decks, I am very pleased with the Kenwood.