Ported Or Sealed Sub Enclosures? Which can you feel more?

When its comes to getting the best sound out of your car audio system that contains a subwoofer, you need to have the right type of enclosure. A subwoofer enclosure is just not a square shape that you plonk a speaker into it. There is more to it, it got to have the correct internal volume for the sub to perform its best. When selecting an enclosure for your subwoofer, usually there are twos most common types ported vs sealed. In terms of which is the best sounding type of enclosure for your subwoofer, its all depends on what you want.

Ported will provide a louder sound around tuning frequency, however below or higher than the tune it will not be so loud. For example, if you tune your ported subwoofer box for maximum spl around 40 HZ, it will play the loudest around 38-42 HZ. So, it will play louder around tuning frequency that’s my point it has a peaky response and doesn’t have a flat response like with a sealed box. In terms of the sound quality, even if you tune low around 28 HZ, you will not get the crisp and accurateness you get from bass provided in a sealed sub box. Ported bass seems to sound more boomy and a one note type of bass. Yes, it is louder though, that is why you see ported boxes are spl comps, however if you are after sound quality sealed is better.

You will feel the bass more from a sealed subwoofer enclosure than a ported box and it can play anything from 80 HZ right down to 10 HZ. Ported will be louder to the ear and also on spl measuring software such as termlab, but sealed you can feel more in your seat and vibrates the car more. I can say this because i did a comparison between a ported and sealed box for 1 12 old school Rockford fosgate punch and a new school Digital Designs sub. The sealed hit far deeper and you can feel it more, but the ported box made you ear tickle and was louder. The tuning on the ported box was around 32 HZ built to spec as well.

So overall the choice is yours between refinement sound or a boomy louder sound. If you want to feel your bass more than hearing it, then a sealed box is the best choice for you. They are easier to build and they take less space up in your trunk. You will need to feed more power into a sub that is in a sealed enclosure to get the same kind of spl that you would get from a normal ported tuned box.

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