I am new to car audio and still have stock speakers in my 94 Ford tempo. I've read that it has 5.25 speakers up front and 6x8's in back. I want to replace the stock speakers and hopefully do a good enough job that I won't need any subs. I'm not looking for fancy or super loud. I'm hopefully looking to stay under $150 (hopefully lower, poor college student). I was thinking about Pioneer speakers or Sony Xplod (even though I hear some bad things about them). Any suggestions of cheap but good speakers? I have a pioneer cd deck, not sure of model or specs on it.
I'd go with a component system up front and forget the rears. You can find Infinity Reference components for around $100 online, or Infinity Kappas are around 150. Don't replace the 6x8s, they have poor sound quality and have higher distortion, cone resonances, etc. You won't get subwoofer type bass out of a 5.25" speaker or a 6x8 for that matter. The components will sound much better than Pioneer or Sony coaxials.