Alpine is a good brand.
Kenwood's Excelon line is really good too.
My buddy with a NE has Kenwood speakers and they sound great.

 

I got some infinity kappas for the door speakers (was going to swap the subs too but I didn't care for the extra cost). They are actually very nice, but main reason for swap was because I too was getting the "pop" whenever I turned the stereo on, or sometimes at random intervals. Wanted a touch screen head unit, but speakers were a more immediate concern =(

I believe they are the 682.9cf, I got them off of crutchfield for about ~$150ish a while back.

 

Stay away from those dumbasses! lol...Look on crutchfield.com. Best place you can look. Kicker and JL audio are my top two honestly.

 

Hard to beat a good set of BA's. Dont know anyone who has been disappointed in them. Have them in my truck and they are freakin awesome.

 

i buy my gear from http://www.sonicelectronix.com/. I replaced the front and rear speakers with pioneer 3-ways 6x8's. The front door subs were changed out to Kicker/Shelby oem fit 8" subs. Replaced sub amps with 200 watt amp. Changed to Sony HU and used PAC unit with allows for OEM like operation.

 

I bought these for the front and run the stock HU. Very noticeable upgrade. Very happy.

 

I can tell you one thing about my Rockford 5x7 Power speakers, they are amazing. They are crystal clear all the way through. They can handle the bass too that's for sure. I banged mine for a year before I even got subs and they were great.

They finally started to break in after a little over a year and made a popping noise for about a week, then they were fine.

I'm running a Rockford Punch 500x4 amp that actually puts out 600 watts and it has never overheated even though the amp running my subs (it's not a Rockford amp) cuts out after 30 minutes unless my seats are laid down.

After listening to many other brands of speakers I prefer the sound of Rockfords more, they seem clearer than many brands and give a good tight bass line. I think you would be more than pleased with them, especially for rock and country music (that's what I listen to most).

 

Hmmm thanks for the suggestions!

I just found some Rockfords for 70 bucks a pair, and there's not one bad review... I think I may just go with that (off of crutchfield.com).

Now what about HU? Ya'll have convinced me to upgrade this as well, and after reading customer reviews, I think it's just about mandatory to get the sound I want out of this upgrade. Suggestions?

 

I have a single din cheap Alpine unit that runs my iPhone and it sounds clear for my phone and CDs, radio isn't as clear, it depends on the station mostly but I never listen to it so it doesn't bother me. Lol. My unit was like $120 and it's been doing great for almost two years.

It appears that many people on here prefer Pioneer AVIC units but I would just look around. If you have an iPhone, check out the AppRadio by Pioneer.

 

How was the install of the front speakers? Was it a pain in the ***? I'm thinking of just upgrading the front speakers as well.