For speakers you may want to go to one of the chain stores and do some A/B comparisons.

I don't want to sound negative or cast aspersions on your advice here, but... listening to different speakers in a controlled "listening room" environment will tell you only one thing: that some speakers sound different from others.

What you hear in that room will have almost no relationship to what they are going to sound like in your car. Your car has maybe 5% of the total air volume of that room, the reflective surfaces are different, the speaker placements are different, the amplifiers are different, the speaker mountings will be different (sealed/free air/band pass/whatever)... nothing is the same other than the brand labels on the speakers.

I have found I do better evaluating speakers second-hand, based on what people tell me their speakers sound like in their cars, than I do trying to listen to speakers in a listening room.

Do your self a favor and get a sub

Absolutely and beyond question. No amount of description will convince you of this. You have to hear it for yourself. We're not talking about a subwoofer to go boom-boom-boom and rattle the neighbors windows. We're talking about full spectral richness, warmth, and tonality to make your music sound the way it was intended.

[begin opinionated rant] Oh... and a subwoofer is 10" diameter or larger. Anything smaller is a mid-range speaker.[/end opinionated rant]

tanstaafl.