Sub enclosures -- Sealed vs. Ported

[bobtist]

It's that time of day, car audio discussion.

Now I've done a bunch of research on this option, and I know the benefits and costs of each. Right now, I'm actually leaning towards building a ported box, but not sure... It's been fun going through all the equations to determine volume, resonant frequency, port length, etc... I'm more interested in hearing your experiences with sealed or ported boxes. Also, if you're talking about your ported sub, please say if it was tuned specifically to the driver and enclosure or if it was purchased from Best Buy

I'm going to be using a pretty high-end single 10" that moves a good amount of air (for a 10&quot. I think the challenge of the bass-reflex construction would also be fun.

 

[yakko]

I prefer sealed for two reasons.
1) Easier to build.
2) Tighter bass response.

Whichever box you go with make sure that the sub is best in that enclosure.

 

[pdo]

If you go ported than it should be custom made for that sub or it'll sound like sh#t. Sealed is much easier to build. For myself I'm using a sealed MTX box made specifically for my SUV and it sound pretty decent.

 

[ElFenix]

sealed is definitly tighter. its not as loud, but whats the point of mushy loudness?

 

[geno]

Ported gives you a much bigger slam, and it's noticible, no doubt about it. If you have some nice subs that can pack a good punch, go with a ported. If you have something lesser, or would just like tighter response / less hit, go for the sealed.

 

[BeHeMOTH]

Well I'd say sealed alot of it would also depend on your space for each sub. If your going for surface to move air 12's and 15's are better with clean power as 4-10's 3-12's 2'15's. Ported or bandpass\bass reflex encloses are cool but depending on your port can be distorted then you would need a longer port.

I used 4 12's (kicker's competitions) in a diamond shape seald encloser, each sealed and lined the inside with egg foam for acustics. Plus you need to think of ohms and the signal to noise ratio. I had a old rockford power 1000 ran mono\bridged to all 4 12's. It wasn't nothing to hit 110db.

Of course this was 5 years ago so I'm sure there have been changes.

 

[pdo]

You are hitting 110db with 4 12's. You can do that with 1 10's..

 

[BeHeMOTH]

Well like I said that was 5 years ago and I used flashdance on the meter. I wasn't really into it bleeding ears like Mark Fakua's blaser.