Sealed or Vented for a Car?

[form109]

what's Better for a Car?....a Vented or Ported box?

ive Rarely seen people use Vented boxe's in a Car so im just Wondering.

[FireII]

There is no "better" or "worse", it's strictly dependant upon your taste and the subwoofer that your planning on using. Some subs work better in sealed and some work better in ported. Some people prefer sealed some prefer ported, most people will argue that a sealed box will always be "tighter" or "more accurate" in response, I say to those people that they've never heard a quality sub in a PROPERLY aligned ported enclosure. I have and will always prefer proted enclosures. You can take the "worlds best subwoofer" and put it into a prefab ported box, and it's likely to sound like garbage, where as sealed enclosures are more "forgiving" when it comes to alignment.

[form109]

Originally Posted by FireII

There is no "better" or "worse", it's strictly dependant upon your taste and the subwoofer that your planning on using. Some subs work better in sealed and some work better in ported. Some people prefer sealed some prefer ported, most people will argue that a sealed box will always be "tighter" or "more accurate" in response, I say to those people that they've never heard a quality sub in a PROPERLY aligned ported enclosure. I have and will always prefer proted enclosures. You can take the "worlds best subwoofer" and put it into a prefab ported box, and it's likely to sound like garbage, where as sealed enclosures are more "forgiving" when it comes to alignment.

How about Bandpass or Passive Radiator Arrangements?

also....Prefab Sub Enclosures seem like Crap....enough to make noise alright,but far from optimum.

[THD+N]

Originally Posted by form109

what's Better for a Car?....a Vented or Ported box?

ive Rarely seen people use Vented boxe's in a Car so im just Wondering.

A woofer in the proper enclosure (alignment) will sound the best. This way, at least your results will be (somewhat) predictable.

The cabin of the vehicle will alter the acoustics of your enclosure / sub combination too. A cheap woofer in the right enclosure will sound good, an expensive woofer in a cheap box will sound terrible.

Unless you are experienced with enclosure design, I would stay away from bandpass / passive radiator systems. Just choose a good sealed or standard ported enclosure for your woofer with a good alignment.

[jol50]

Problem with BP boxes is one, you can BP with electronics easily now and not have a huge box do it...and two, if you tune a sub to get some gain they get narrow so in a car you often need very low playing mids or midbass to reach them. PR can work really well in some cases, such as when your port can't fit in the box. They can work well otherwise, but if they are not an advantage why use them because they can wear out and do cost money unlike ports (for the most part). Sealed or ported, depends on what sub and what you are trying to do. The sealed will have the very smallest box, ported will have more output...in general. I prefer IB in a car or ported if I can't have my IB (no box at all). Its the only way I can get low with a nearly empty trunk. Most people figure the space they have to work with, and find a sub that models like they want in that space, and/or with the output they want.

[Jonas83]

This depends on what car, what sub, and how you intend to play it..... a sub not suitable for ported boxes will die in such whitin time....