Just curious, I see a lot of people recommend ported boxes and going from friend's cars the best sounding ones are the sealed enclosures. I personally have a 15" Cerwin Vega with a home made sealed box with ~5.5 cubic feet of space. Would there be any benefit turning it into a ported box? Or does it depend on the type of speaker I'm using? How do you "tune" using the diameter and length of the tubes?
Ported or sealed box?
- Thread starter cool 84
- Start date
Just my opinion, but ported boxed seem to hit a little softer. They do tend to get rid of the annoying boomie sound that some sealed boxes make.
I had 2 12s in a 91 CRX and when it was sealed, it was too boomie. I put 4" ports in it 15 or so inches long and it took the boom away and hit nicely. What does that have to do with a TR, I do not know. Thank you.
I had 2 12s in a 91 CRX and when it was sealed, it was too boomie. I put 4" ports in it 15 or so inches long and it took the boom away and hit nicely. What does that have to do with a TR, I do not know. Thank you.
If it is for a GN I would definetly go ported into the rear deck. I don't see any way to do it on a GN without muffling or distortion.
That is what I am doing. Box will be taking up the upper tray in trunk between the trunk hinges. I also have a Lincoln Mark 8 and that is what I did.
As a side note if you are just going for clear sound in the car all you need are 2 8" Kicker Solarbarics. More than enough bass to hear and be heard if you are into that. Also less weight and space in the Gn.
That is what I am doing. Box will be taking up the upper tray in trunk between the trunk hinges. I also have a Lincoln Mark 8 and that is what I did.
As a side note if you are just going for clear sound in the car all you need are 2 8" Kicker Solarbarics. More than enough bass to hear and be heard if you are into that. Also less weight and space in the Gn.
Now I see what you guys are saying. Problem is I have a 15" and there's no way in hell it will fit in the shelf so I have this huge box taking up 2/3s of my trunk. It's something that will only be there during the week for driving to work and it will come out when it's time to play. Like I said, it's nearly 6cu ft but has pretty good low bass response. Thanks for the input. BTW, anyone make a nice ported box say if I ever went with a couple 12s and wanted my trunk back?
Hey can you give me more info on this. I am looking for more bass in the car but Im not really interested in putting the full sub thing in. How hard is install and what type mountings do you need? Ive seen several posts here with homemade type kick panels (I think they are home made). Dont get me wrong, they loook good but I dont think I could make something like that. Is there some premade?
Any and all info appreciated.
Intercooler
New Member
- Joined
- May 24, 2001
Anyone using Poly-Fill in their sealed box? I did in mine and love the sound much better. Nice improvement!
Dr. Jeckel
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2003
I can build custom boxes of any size and for any combo. I'm afraid the shipping pirces would get to be to high to make it worth your while though. I got a little book on speaker box building from radio shack a long time ago and it gives you everything you would ever want to know.
I like sealed because it gives you a cleaner bass. But really it all comes down to matching the rms rating of your amp and sub together with a proper sized enclosure volume and what type of music you like and how loud you like it.
Adding polyfill or any othe matting increases the virtual enclosure volume...basically like making the box a little bigger.
dthrock.....you could go with a 8" bazooka bass tube that is amplified. You can get them on ebay pretty cheap and they take up hardly any space at all if you put them on the shelf in the trunk.
I like sealed because it gives you a cleaner bass. But really it all comes down to matching the rms rating of your amp and sub together with a proper sized enclosure volume and what type of music you like and how loud you like it.
Adding polyfill or any othe matting increases the virtual enclosure volume...basically like making the box a little bigger.
dthrock.....you could go with a 8" bazooka bass tube that is amplified. You can get them on ebay pretty cheap and they take up hardly any space at all if you put them on the shelf in the trunk.
I have since the day I had subs in my cars. Even with a poor "pre-fab" enclosure, it sounds 3 times better with polyfill. I currently have 3 Dual Voice Coil 10s in my Ttype in a sealed box under the rear deck, and I have 1 bag of polyfill per chamber.
As for which box........sealed all the way........never have liked the sound of ported boxes. Bandbass is alright though. JMO
Running ported or sealed...the age old question...
You need to first understand what a port does. I'll try to keep it simple and not confuse the matter with BS -
A port is a resonator that will "ring" at a certain frequency. Have you ever blown across the top of a bottle and had it "whistle" or "toot"? That's what a port does in a sub box.
All boxes have a response curve. As the frquecy being reproduced drops (goes lower in frequecy) the output of the box will go down (get quieter). A properly ported box rolls off slowly and will remain fairly smooth all the way to the port tuning frequency and then it'll drop like a rock. Also below the tuning frequecy, the box becomes unloaded. When this happens, the woofer only has it's own suspension (no air spring from the box) and if played at a high volume WILL damage the woofer.
The port is used to extend the low frequency response of the enclosure. Drawback, it will typically not play as low as a sealed box BUT up to it's tuning frequency (the port has to be tuned specifically for the enclosur & woofer) It will out perform a sealed box.
A sealed box has a very slow, linear (smooth) roll off all the way to it's lower frequency response but sacrafices some out put for the better linearity.
NOW - when the speaker is designed, it is designed with a certain type of enclosure in mind. Run the woofer in the type of box it is designed for.
SO:
Sealed box - linear, smooth and "punchy", but sacrafices some overall output (volume)
Ported box - louder, but peakier (not as smooth as a sealed), unloads below tuning frequecy.
Overall POPULAR opinions seem to be:
Sound quality - sealed box
overall SPL - ported box.
There are exceptions to every rule though...
I would suggest you look at some of the new woofers out. There are a bunch (10s 12s & 15s)that will go in a much smaller space and far out perform the CV woofer you have, even the 12s. Just a thought...
You need to first understand what a port does. I'll try to keep it simple and not confuse the matter with BS -
A port is a resonator that will "ring" at a certain frequency. Have you ever blown across the top of a bottle and had it "whistle" or "toot"? That's what a port does in a sub box.
All boxes have a response curve. As the frquecy being reproduced drops (goes lower in frequecy) the output of the box will go down (get quieter). A properly ported box rolls off slowly and will remain fairly smooth all the way to the port tuning frequency and then it'll drop like a rock. Also below the tuning frequecy, the box becomes unloaded. When this happens, the woofer only has it's own suspension (no air spring from the box) and if played at a high volume WILL damage the woofer.
The port is used to extend the low frequency response of the enclosure. Drawback, it will typically not play as low as a sealed box BUT up to it's tuning frequency (the port has to be tuned specifically for the enclosur & woofer) It will out perform a sealed box.
A sealed box has a very slow, linear (smooth) roll off all the way to it's lower frequency response but sacrafices some out put for the better linearity.
NOW - when the speaker is designed, it is designed with a certain type of enclosure in mind. Run the woofer in the type of box it is designed for.
SO:
Sealed box - linear, smooth and "punchy", but sacrafices some overall output (volume)
Ported box - louder, but peakier (not as smooth as a sealed), unloads below tuning frequecy.
Overall POPULAR opinions seem to be:
Sound quality - sealed box
overall SPL - ported box.
There are exceptions to every rule though...
I would suggest you look at some of the new woofers out. There are a bunch (10s 12s & 15s)that will go in a much smaller space and far out perform the CV woofer you have, even the 12s. Just a thought...