Car Stereos: Upgrading F150 sound system, powered speakers, quality speakers

Question
My son has a 2004 F150 Ext cab.  He has a tight budget but would like to upgrade the stock sound.  I am first thinking speakers then a new head unit a little later.  No plans for amp or sub.  I just bought 4 quality speakers that handle 60w RMS.  Is this too much for the stock head unit which is probably 4x15 RMS? will the head be underpowered.  He can only afford a new head unit with around 4x22w RMS.  Should I look at lower powered speakers?

Answer
Hi Tim,

It's a common misconception that a speaker with a higher power rating requires more power to run effectively.  This really isn't true.  A speaker's power rating just specifies the maximum power level that the speaker can handle without damage.  Running the speaker at a lower power level doesn't hurt a thing, and there's no real advantage in switching to a speaker with a lower rating, just because you don't have a higher-powered head unit.  (As an analogy: if you have to carry one gallon of water, a 5-gallon bucket works just as well as a 2-gallon bucket).

If you're just using head unit power, whether it's a stock or after-market head unit, then a more useful specification to look at on the speakers is the sensitivity rating.  The sensitivity shows the output level that the speaker can produce with one watt of power.  If you're comparing two speakers, the speaker that can produce more output at 1 watt will also produce more output at 15 watts.  This is a much better guide than the power rating, when it comes to determining which speaker will perform better with a limited amount of power.  However, I'd let your ears be the final judge: if one speaker sounds more natural and realistic than another, then choose the better sound, not the better spec.

Hope this helps!

Brian