sub questions

[kejolly]

A newbie here that is looking into building his first DIY project since the weather is turning cold up here in Alaska. I am looking at the rythmik audio kit or any other kit that someone recommends. I am looking at between 400-500 dollars for the driver and amp. The enclosures would be on the small size of 1.5 ft^3 for a sealed box and 2.2 ft^3 for a ported enclosure.
It will be used for 50/50 music and HT.

My first question (may be a dumb one) is should it matter if you build a ported or sealed sub when you have ported speakers? I think that I was reading somewhere that it would be easier to blend if you matched your speakers...is this true?

If I do build a ported enclosure, I would like to build one with a slotted vent. Is there a easy formula for figuring tunning freq of a slotted vent?

I have all of the wood working skills and most of the electronics knowledge (can't put it all together sometimes).

All help is appreciated. I do have a couple of months before the build.

Thanks

Kevin

[richie00boy]

If you have vented main speakers it does not matter at all if your sub is vented or sealed or any other design, as this will only affect the low end response of the sub, not where it integrates with the main speakers.

Slot vents are easy to do and can have advantages in some implementations (such as middle of a box, forming a brace). When you design a typical round vent, just make the slot vent have the same cross-sectional area and you can use the same length. You will have to tweak the tuning a bit though due to the deviation away from the ideal round/square shape.

I prefer sealed boxes, but there are good vented ones out there and it depends drastically on a large number of variables as to which is best for you.