Tricks using a smaller enclosure 12" woofer

I'm not quite sure what you mean when you you say repurpose the port holes.

I suppose the aperiodic holes could be split between two sides of the enclosure, for example, between the front and back.

P.S. All of this is highly experimental and I can't guarantee good results. You would be advised to do a mock-up using normal, thin mdf first, before committing yourself to working with the rock-hard stuff!
ps two 1.5" holes drilled in the front. slide some dark grey sched 80 pvc pipe (1" id ) \for the ported test
 
OK, then not ~aperiodic enough, which means not enough damping applied, so historically, fine tuning any type vent is to 'critically' damp it, i.e. ~transient perfect (no 'hangover'/'boom').

'CLICK' Test.PNG
 
So no array of 21 x 0.9" holes as you previously mentioned, but two rectangular resistive vents instead?

I think I'm a little confused. It must be an age thing!

GM seems to be following but, after all, he's the expert. 🙂
 
ps two 1.5" holes drilled in the front. slide some dark grey sched 80 pvc pipe (1" id ) \for the ported test
That's what I would up doing... 1.5" x 9" rectangle in the back with a table saw. Smoke smell was eye watering.

Both ported and aperiodic sound boomier than the original enclosure. So some modifying left.
Definitely in my case, but 'assumed' from these posts that he decided to just test with (dual?) vent(s) and didn't like the results, hence now trying large slots to experiment with aperiodic Vs all the tedious hole drilling.
 
My aquarium sponge is working fine, but before I cut it and permanently ruin it. I was thinking of trying out felt, then though... what about Tyvek fabric as a vent cover. It's used to breaks up drafts (and sound from drafts), allows for air penetration, waterproof, cheap, and very thin. Fold it over as many times as needed to get the desired density.

Might even be usefull as speaker mesh.
Vertical surfaces sitting near the floor/wall runs a risk of cat peeing on it, tyvek might be a good permanent solution to protect the woofer
 
It's probably the wrong thing to do but I went with poly fill and fiberglass. FG paper backing makes it much easier to line the walls. I cut fishnet stockings and stapled it above/bellow the port which made it a lot easier to stuff a dense and even layer of PF over the port. (I didn't want to pull apart layers of FG and get it everywhere so PF for everything other than the the 5 squares of FG.

Dialogue sounds much better on it

Weirdly, my box is louder at 80-90hz than the original larger ported enclosure was. Db response is the same at 140hz for both. Original enclosure was 66db at 45hz, this one is doesn't hit 66db at 60-65hz.(I didn't test it any proper way, or with a quality mic but did it consistently on both enclosres.

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