Sealed or ported? Two projects which one?

[Boscoe]

Okay I want a small compact subwoofer should I go for the Hivi SP-10 in a sealed enclosure or a Peerless XLS 269 in a ported enclosure.

Both systems are 18l.

SP10 pros.
That 'tight' bass sound.
Looks of the driver!!
Easier to build.

SP-10 cons.
Massive 250W power consumption for 5db less.

XLS 269 pros.
Higher SPL and far less power consumption 100W.

XLS 269 cons.
Higher cost.
More complex build.
Supposedly wooly bass?

I would go for the peerless driver, I just want to know whether this tighter bass really exists in reality?

Thanks
Boscoe

 

[richie00boy]

Wooly bass from ported boxes only applies to poorly designed boxes. It's going to be a squeeze trying to get a big enough port into an 18 litre box.

 

[chris661]

Perhaps a passive radiator design would be better (than ported), as it'd avoid many of the issues surrounding ports.

I'd go for a sealed design myself, though that'd depend on design constraints - how loud/low do you want it to go?

 

[nigelwright7557]

Wooly bass from ported boxes only applies to poorly designed boxes. It's going to be a squeeze trying to get a big enough port into an 18 litre box.

I put the port in the rear of the box as there was no room at the front.

 

[norman bates]

I second the passive radiator.

And yes, absolutely, tuning at or below 27hz, ported sounds great.

I like a deep unboosted sealed too (F3 near 30hz) but that usually requires large driver that wants bigger than 5ft3. I have my eye on a pair of the 15" dayton hf's I think (5.2ft3, qtc .707, Fsb=f3=30hz).

Norman

 

[eric beek]

the transient respons is always slower of a bassreflex,higher mass, ,q is higher ,therefor more pronounced basic bass resonance, i would choose sealed,cause the overall performance is much better ,a bass reflex usually sounds coloured, due to harmonics resonance in tube port ,combfilter effects,can maybe be affoided by using a steep active 24 db/octave butterworth filter,to elliminate combfiltereffects