Subwoofer audio question?

Question

I have a subwoofer box that uses two subs and has the front side sealed and backside ported, I believe this a bad design because all the sound come from the rear of the sub instead of the front. Which front I believe has the low frequency sound and the back has a higher frequency. Obviously I want low frequency because that is the purpose of the subwoofer. The subwoofer can't be switched around either. I want to know if I am right about this being a terrible design. Should I switch to a normal bandpass box or not.

Answer 1

new box

Answer 2

1. What you're describing sounds like a normal bandpass box. There's nothing wrong with that design. Usually the sealed chamber is the one with the plexiglass window, so if you put the magnets in the sealed chamber you'd be able to see all the wiring and terminals. It can be designed either way, but most manufacturers aim the front of the sub into the sealed chamber just to improve the looks of the system.

2. There is no difference in sound between the back of the subwoofer and the front of the subwoofer. A bandpass box that had similar dimensions but put the ported chamber on the front face of the subs would sound exactly the same. That's simply the way subwoofers work.

Answer 3

well band pass enclosures in general arent a very sought after design. First though, expalin that a woofer sounds no different (to the ear) regardless if its forward or backward, however you will lose spl beacuse a cone isnt very efficent at moving air in an inverted position, but in a cone shape it does, common sense right?

now lets look at the box designs and their advantages and dis advantages

1st) sealed boxes are easier to build and give you a more natural or flat response, great for sound quality because you dont get any peaks or dips across the frequency spectrum, but that could also be a downside if your looking to have massive bass. also a sealed box tends to allow more power handling because it has more control over the woofer. with no frequency loss

2nd) vented or ported enclosures. great because you get a 3db gain (at its tuned frequency and additional at surrounding frequencies as well) for those of you that do not know 3db is equivelent to twice as much sound, so an example would be one 12'' woofer with 200 watts in a sealed box, sounds like just that, one 12 with 200 watts, but put that same woofer in a tuned vented box now it sounds like two 12's on a 200 watt amp (at given notes), you also get an advantage becasue you dont lose deeper bass or higher notes as well. a little trickier to build, but your woofer spec sheet should have the info. In a nut shell how it works is the vent or port should have the equivalent internal air space as your woofer does surface space, so when the air is forced out, it moves the same amount of air as the cone displaces in its movement, sounding as though an additional woofer is in its place, simple enough right........

3rd) band pass..... even more difficult to build, but you get a 3db gain across a much larger frequency spectrum, sounds like all advantages right? wrong, in that you lose the deeper bass notes (because their masked by an enclosure with only little air holes for the sound to escape) you also loose the tighter punchier bass (their lost in the muddiness of the lower bass notes trying to escape) and it also hides woofer distortion, which is also bad because now you, the listener cant hear the woofer breakdown to know when to turn the music down and save your gear!!!!! not to mention with all that air moving around in that box, waiting its turn to escape, you can only imagine the cancelation that must be going on in there!!!!
in my opinion, depending on your music preference, your going to get much better sound out of a vented enclosure thats more suitable for modern music. If your a sound quality guru, do the sealed

then you also have transmission line and water bag enclosures, but they are different beasts all together