The 8 Best Car Speakers for Music Lovers

True story: In 1983, Honda didn’t bother to include a car speaker system in any of its Civics, even the super-fancy 1500 “S” model. You bought the whole audio system from a dealer, who then installed it for you. Nearly 30 years later, things have changed. Today’s car audio is integrated at the factory and is often wired so intricately into the rest of the vehicle that it’s difficult, and in some cases nearly impossible, to change or remove any of the components.

No need to fret—there’s an affordable, low-tech way to improve your audio quality. All you have to do is swap out your factory speakers with aftermarket ones. The average factory-installed car speaker is designed more with durability and cost control in mind rather than ultimate audiophile enjoyment, so an upgrade is a chance to make a big change for relatively small bucks.

The 8 Best Car Speakers

The Expert: I’ve been an audiophile for as long as I can remember, and I’ve been building home and automotive sound systems for more than 25 years. My first system was a complete rewire of a new VW Fox; my last one was a high-power, subwoofer-heavy, from-scratch install in (of all things) a stick-shift Mercury Milan. I’ve had Land Rovers with four amplifiers and 16 aftermarket speakers in them, and I’ve also made do with just an extra subwoofer in a complex fiber-optic factory system. I’m passionate about great sound in cars, in the home, and on the go.

What To Consider When Upgrading Your Car Speakers

Size and Location

When in doubt, just remove and measure your existing speakers, then get something the same size or similar. There’s actually a lot of “slack” in many car speaker installs, and there’s also a variety of “standard” sizes that should work in many cars. Don’t forget about speaker depth; that’s often the most important measurement of all. Most of these items are best installed by a competent local shop.

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Woofers and Tweeters

The days of asking one speaker to reproduce the whole range of music, like the old handheld AM radios did, are long over. Today’s car speakers specialize in one part of the musical spectrum. Tweeters handle the highest notes while woofers take care of the lower frequencies. More capable systems may have mid-range speakers, which fill in vocals, guitar, and other middle-of-the-road sounds, and subwoofers, which are responsible for that ultra-low “boom” you hear in cars next to you in traffic.

Source and Signal

Make sure that your speakers are powered by a conventional wire with positive and negative leads. In some cases, your car may use optical cable or a “common ground” wiring system; consult an expert if that’s the case.

Choosing Your Upgrade

If you’re not able to swap out all your speakers at once, which ones should you choose? Go big first! In other words, replace the largest speakers in your car before the smaller ones. The larger ones are tasked with making most of the noise in your cockpit, so an improvement will be more audible than if you swap out the tweeters in your car’s A-pillar, for example.

Assuming you’re also the driver, it’s also worth spending your money up front first. In some cases, even the passengers in the rear will appreciate your doing so, as many systems have a heavy front bias regardless of what you do with the fader knob.

How We Selected These Car Speakers

As a lifetime audiophile and sound-system builder in both home and automotive, I’ve built, installed, and listened to dozens of high-end car-stereo speaker systems over the past three decades. Having listened to and examined many of these systems, I’ve seen—and heard—first-hand what works and what doesn’t. I’ve used that experience to select and recommend the speakers below.