OK I was thinking of gettin a ported box soon for my solobaric. I think I want the loud a$$ bass now. and Is 175 to much for jsut custom made box made according to kicker specs?


WIll my bass improve big time wit a Ported Box. I have a single L5 12 in a small sealed box with 600 watts going to it.

 

I got 2 JL 10s W7 in a ported box.... its freakin AWESOME!!!

 

I've done a lot of experimentation with box formations over the years and I'm convinced that a sealed box is the only way to go. Just as smack is the poor man's cocaine, ported boxes are for those interested in 'appearing' to have a big system without the required money and effort it would take to make it really nice. The ported boxes are boomy and loud and great for rap, but it is 'sloppy' bass that is only truly tight within a small range. Sealed boxes require more power but less air space, and they are tight across most ranges.

I had 2 10" Orions in my Accord. Sealed box resting against the back seat firing toward the trunk. Bass is multi-directional and can easily thump in your car. I had a MTX 2150X amp and the thing hit like mad.

Anyway, my 2 cents is free . . . take it with a grain of salt.

 

well I have been thinking that I should just keep my sealed. I really never have had a chance to listen to a ported box yet. So ill see.

 

just call kickers tech support and they will give u the best box size for that power amount. ported is usually louder and they have come a long way in making it sound great as well...

 

any box...properly tuned...will work for what it was tuned for.

 

WIll it be good with Techno music. I talked to my friend who work at the audio place and said they are gonna build a box for me right from kicker specs. again techno music has that punchy bass so I am just worried about that.

 

I called up Kicker Tech today and this is what they said.

Not many people will tell the differ in sound quilty, but some will. also it can raise the SPL by about 3-6 spls??? Is that tru, I know sound doubles evert 3 spls. He said its gonna be like have 2 solobarics in the trunk?

 

True to some extent.

These are all true:

Adding another woofer = 3 db increase
Doubling amp power = 3 db increase

Therefore a 3 db increase in output is like adding another woofer or doubling amp power.

If volume is what you are after, go ported but, it does need to be a precise tuning of the box. If the dimensions of port are wrong, it will sound bad and can damage the woofer. I prefer sealed because I am a do-it-yourselfer and there are too many variables in ported systems for me.

If you want to go ported, you can download some blueprints for the exact box you need to make from Kicker's website. It even shows the tuning and how much power should go to it.

This is just my opinion on the matter.

 

Ultimate Audio here in town is a pretty big kicker dealer, and they do show there vehicles at kicker shows, and so i trust them wit makin me the box right. They are charging me 175 buck to make it to kicker specs.

 

$175 sound pretty fair for a custom ported box. Let us know how it sounds.

I still have to make a new box myself. But, when the temp is 10, it is hard to get motivated to go outside and cut. Maybe this weekend, I can get started.

 

are you gonna fiberglass it on the side? IS it cold over there anyways. Ilive in FL and it was 18 degrees this morning, God It felt so good.

 

I just picked up the box today. Its a pretty neat lookin thing it looks like a bose wave radio inside

 

I would prefer not to fiberglass it. That stuff is a pain to work with in my opinion. Just a small sealed box out of MDF is probably what I will do. Let me know how the box sounds.

Been friggin' freezin' here. This morning was about 2 with a high of 30. Yesterday was 10 with a high of 22. Tomorrow heat wave, 40. Then Sunday, 32.

 

with the correct woofer and correct tuning a ported box can very easily be tighter and cleaner than a sealed box. untill you drive a ported enclosure below the tuned frequency of the box a ported box has less cone travel than a sealed box, any time you can maintain cone excursion to stay within the linear cone excursion (Xmax) you will always have less distortion.
most likely you were using subs that done have the correct properties for a ported box.

 

I called up kicker and they said the woofer will move less in a ported box and yes i hear alot of people say that? BUt how, the woofer is much looser in the ported. My box is built exactly to kicker specs and the box is so complex lookin. Inside it looks almost like some bose wave design. Ill post back when I have it installed. I am to busy to do it anytime soon.

 

ive never seen the inside of the blose wave radio, but i think ur trying to describe the slotted port. it is slotted, right?

 

yup its slotted.

 

its simple your not thinking it through all the way.
in a ported box the air in the port and sub move in the same direction at the same time.
it's called resonance. at the tuned frequency the sub for example moves into the box, well of course the air will want to move out of the box. but in the same time it takes to get the air moving out of the box the sub has switched direction and is now moving forward or out also. at the tuned frequency the speed of the air occolating in and out of the box is in perfect sync and in the same direction as the sub. so when the sub moves out the port air moves out. its like having 2 subs instead of 1. this is why a ported box has so much more output than a sealed box because the otherwise lost acustical energy inside the box is used outside.
as the sub moves faster at higher frequencies there will become a point where the air really isnt moving at all. in this case to the sub the the ported box becomes sealed.

moving back toward the tuned frequency the port is actually adding and subtracting air to the box at the same time as the sub and in the same direction.
as you move lower past the tuned frequency the sub begins to move slow enough to allow some air to actually move opposite of the woofer and in this case yes the sub will become "loose" as you call it. we refer to this as unloading think of the air in the box and the sub like a spring. the cone is like a weight on the end of a spring and it will bounce up and down at some frequency.
if you add weight to the object at the end of the spring it will bounce up and down slower, if you take weight away it will move faster.
this is just how a port works. depending on the length of it and the diameter you are effectivly changing the strength of the spring and by makeing it larger your making the weight heavier.

a sealed box has nothing entering or leaving the box for air or again in this case a spring. (the air works just like a spring) so since there is no interaction from the inside of the box adding or subtracting air from the box the spring is held constant allowing the sub to continue to mave more cone travel because it is in a linear fashion.

 

what your referring to is called a wave guide, it allows the sub to think it is in a larger box than it is. well much more complicated than that but its not like a ported box exactly

 

a sealed box takes up less space though.

 

nah, a waveguide is shaped like a horn...as in the compression drivers made by usd, id, etc...

 

Loaded the box up with the solobaric and WOW its loud............... thats all i have to say

 

yep, those L7's really shine when ported properly

 

I guess in theory, the ported box takes less power to reach the same volume as the sealed so, with the same power the ported should be quite a bit louder. I tried the ported route before and just never got into it. I am a sealed box kinda guy. How is the quality compared to the sealed?

 

AcuraX2: The bass is still tight!!!! I was so suprised but it rolls off quick on the fast techno beats. ITs not sloppy and it is really comparable to a sealed box.

 

That's great. My experience could be because I had no idea what I was doing at the time. Build a box, cut a whole, jam a piece of PVC in the hole and there you go, a ported box. Only many years later did I realize there are so many important factors to be considered. Glad it is working for you.

They did put the slot loaded port in the box? I have the blueprints that I got from Kicker on building one of those things. I have had it for a while and have toyed with the idea but, now in the TL, it just takes up more room than I want it to.