Hi,
As many of you have no doubt realized, the stock WRX speakers are basically trash, and I'm looking to get something that sounds better.

What I'm hoping to find is a set of decent 2 or 3 way 6.5's for the front that will sound good when driven off the factory head unit, but that if I decide to add a mild system, will be ok up to at least 60-75 watts RMS, and have good sound quality.

I had been looking at the Polk db series 6.5" shallow mounts. Has anyone tried these, and/or are there some others that I should be considering? Also, with an 07 WRX, do you still need an adapeter to mount 6.5's?

Thanks!

The best speakers for the stock HU are the stock speakers. The sensitivity is quite high and can play ok with the extremely low power output from the HU.

Changing out to aftermarket ones won't get you a huge increase in performance, and depending on what ones you get might sound worse.

+1 plus the stock HU is garbage anyway, i installed a pioneer the day i bought the car, im a car audio installer, get a new deck first. Pioneer or alpine in my opinion, if you talk on the phone alot get the pioneer 7900 its awsome and it has bluetooth built in, there really popular right now and there great for the new law thats going in to effect

Senor Daishi is right. A new head unit on stock speakers would make more of a difference than stock head unit to aftermarket speakers. If you do change them, I recommend ones like the Kicker KS, they are very efficient and louder for the power than any speakers in my experience. Expect to give up a little bit of bass, but gain a decent amount of midrange and highs.
-Brandon

I'd say infinity front speaker would be a fair speaker. As higher end speakers you start to loose bass in a big way. Forget the rear as I found it's not exactly needed as that's just fill sound. If you upgrade to new rears you might run into volume issues.

Right on... sounds like everyone is pretty much in agreement here... I guess maybe I'll just suck it up and deal with the stockers until they blow, or I decide to kick down some cash for a decent system. Thanks for the tips guys.

you have more of a chance burning stuff out with a stock unit compared to a larger amp/unit.

Even if the stock HU was put into a clipping state the total output (as what CAN damage a speaker when clipped...not the actual signal) would most likely not exceed the max handling capabilities of the stock drivers.

I just put in some Infinity Reference 5.25 component speakers up front. I'm actually impressed how they sound with the factory HU.

why would you put a 5.25 up front?

6.5 in speakers can be installed with adaptors. Yet some speakers rub causing damage to the speaker. Unless 06+ door cards are used. With newer door cards it's big enough to hold the bigger speaker with no problems. So 5.25 are safe in pre 06 cars.

Small clarification... 05+ door cards, not 06+ and ljb2105 was asking why someone would want to run a smaller driver up front when it's easy to fit 6.5" even in pre 05 cars

yes but some 6.5 speakers can be damaged using pre 05 door cards. I had it happen twice.

Which is why you run extension pins and your problems are solved . It also has nothing to do with the width of the driver, just the depth. You can find 6.5" drivers that are more shallow than many 5.25" drivers.

I do know where you're coming from don't get me wrong, it just takes a bit more work to get them to function just as well in 04- doors.

Because they were on sale for $89 (reg. $189) and I knew they'd sound better than factory.

its pretty simple to get a 6.5 to work on a pre-05 door card. simply space it out properly, use an extended door pin, and trim the ring on the inner door card that most usually causes that "buzzing" sound. simple as that. no damage to the speaker, no buzzing sound, no magnet hitting the window.