With the many aspects of loudspeaker design, it is quite a good idea to break it into parts.
Bass response is quite interesting since the whole thing was put on a mathematical basis by Thiele-Small parameters. This is one of my closed-box speakers. 30L is usually about right for any 8" woofer. Whether you do 2nd order closed-box, 3rd order damped aperiodic or 4th order reflex depends on the exact bass unit.
Thiele-Small determined that the main flat-baffle measurables of a bass driver are Qms, Qes, Qts. And Vas. Once you put it into a box, you get the Qtc, or cabinet response
If a small magnet driver has a Qts of 0.5, it is best in closed box of the measured Vas.
A big magnet driver of Qts 0.38 works best in reflex box of its measured Vas.
That's about it really.
Questions then arise about what happens if you mess around with resistive damping. Whether from the amplifier's source impedance or physical resistors.
Exact calculations are here, in Morgan Jones' superb analysis:
Arpeggio Loudspeaker
You can use a simulator to try stuff for yourself:
Software | Visaton
I took a reflex Visaton W200S-8 woofer in 12L closed box with a solid state amplifier (The Solid Line), and added 6R at the front of the filter to see how it might respond with a valve SET amplifier of 6 ohm output impedance (The dotted line):
Ye Gods! It works for better deeper bass! A surprise.
