On the speaker front that is very true. It does not take anything radical or special either. I have used 12 inch full range guitar speakers, coaxial 6X9's in truck boxes, high end book shelf speakers, high end audio speaker and even a home theater center channel. All where a huge step up from what comes installed in 2 way radio's. In fact an old ford 4x6 or some other odd ball number in a cigar box works better than the OEM speaker in all radio's.
I have always just used what ever I had available to me at the time. I like to have a lot more speaker than I need and preferably not very efficient to eat up some of the noise. A large full range speaker or even a sub-woofer that is resonating in free air will not have much bass as the sound from the back and the front cancel each other out in free air. This is how they did audio well into the 1940's The front of the enclosure would be ornate wood and would have a grill cloth of sorts to hide the speaker and the back was basically open. I like to use a large speaker and a fairly soft sounding tweeter. I normally aim the speaker at the wall and reflect it back at me this takes some of the edge off the sound. Some people think the sub or large full range muddies the sound but with a tweeter along for the ride it should not be noticeable keep in mind this is CB audio not and audio book recorded in a studio with a $7000 mic. On top of that we are talking about a minuscule output. Most people will find a 6x9 coaxial speaker to be more than enough especially is you dampen the inside with pillow stuffing "poly fill" I think it is called. Pick a speaker you like to begin with if you think it sounds like crap with studio mastered recording it is not going to help the terrible CB audio sound any better. I would sort through your speakers in your home listening to talk radio until you find one you like. If you buy some speakers do listen to them. Any decent speaker will sound great compared to OEM. I have a tube/transistor hybrid 8 track am/fm receiver in my basement. It is playing through some ancient Realistic bookshelf speakers and two eminence speakers hanging from wire and it sound fantastic.
Things to consider.
1) Do not use just a large full range or sub alone no enough definition and clarity.
2) Do not use a tweeter alone not unless you like your ears bleeding and your skull pounding.
3) Unless you have hearing loss do not point the speaker right at yourself try aiming it at a wall opposite you if they are near the same level as you and close to you.
4) If you can do it put the speaker up higher than you will be. Think about Gym's, Movie Theater, Church they always have the speakers up high.
What good is all this hifi stuff if you are using the terrible stock speaker?
