2 x 12" Subwoofer Box Help!! port or no port????

Question

i have already in my car 2 x 12" alpine subs running off a 1000w amp the box is just on big sealed box with no ports. on the never ending quest to to have my audio gear to sound its best i am wondering if porting the box will improve the quality of the bass??????

Answer 1

What model are the subs, and what are the dimensions of the box?

Typically a sub in a ported box requires a larger air space than a sub in a sealed box, so if your sealed box is the right size for the subs, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try putting ports in it.

Answer 2

If I were you i would not port the box. A port can ruin the sound of the subs if it is not done properly. Buying a box that is professionally built would be a better idea. Sound wise a port will give the sub a much louder sound. A port will make the sub much better on heavy/low bass style music. Heavy rock will normally not sound as good due to the bass not being as "tight".

Answer 3

depends on what you plan to play through them. sealed is tighter, ported is boomier. Heavy metal and classical, or hiphop and rap.....3D music or bass testers. as for box size, most subs have ranges of sizes you can use for sealed and then for ported and sometimes these overlap so it depends on what you have and what is recommended. stuffing the box with polyfill has been said to fake the sub into thinking the box is bigger. as for spl, my instinct is ported is better but not sure. this thought is based off of the fact that you're moving more air into and out of the place outside the box if it's ported. one thing i'd recommend is if you go ported try to get the cleanest most accurate components you can, from the subs to the tweets to the amps to the head unit and wiring. while you want to do this normally, you'd want this even more so with ported because of the looseness of action. there's nothing to stop the movement if it accidently goes too far in or out like there is with sealed. and 1000w is nothing to play around with when using expensive drivers. for more info try crutchfield.com

Answer 4

a ported box (built to spec) will give you (the listener) a 3db gain in sound. For those who do not know, 3db equivilates to twice as much sound. heres the technicalities. your port is typically tuned to a specific note, example 40Hz, and that (along with its neighboring frequencies) will be the frequencies to benefit from a ported enclosure. So in this scenario, you can potentially see (hear) the difference. If you were to take a single 12'' woofer on a 200 watt amp, well that's whats its going to sound like (one 12 on a 200 watt amp right?) take that same woofer and put it in a vented enclosure and now its going to sound like two 12's on a 200 watt amp. the port actually reinforces and increases air movement (which is what causes sound, vibrations in the air) hence you increase bass with increased air movement. the trick....... the internal dimension of the port has to displace the same amount of air that the woofer cone moves....... the owners manual for the woofer should have that information with it. along with tuning info. 40 - 45Hz is the normal because of the effective frequencies around it are most beneficial in music, which means more useful frequencies will also receive an output gain

Answer 5

What the guy above me said works but I think it depends on the car your using. If you have an SUV or a hatchback, (pretty much anycar where your subs aren't in the trunk) then ported sounds better cause the sound waves can like reverberate throughout your whole car better. If you have a car where your subs are in the trunk you would probably do better to get sealed because if you had a ported back there those extra sound waves woulden't really reach you.