sealed or vented?

If one was always better than the other, why would they make both?

There's no easy answer. It depends on your personal tastes, the sub you're building it for, and any sort of design constraints you may have. In general, with a ported box you get a little bit more output, but your frequency response drops off sharply below the tuning frequency. The sealed box will have a smoother response with lower frequency extention.

That's of course assuming you've picked a sub that will work well in either type of enclosure. Some subs are best suited to sealed, others to ported, and some for either.

Also sealed boxes can are generaly smaller than ported boxes. With a ported box you need more box size for the sub and extra room for port displacment.

It depends on how you like your bass, as well as the speaker. Ported boxes tend to have punchier bass than sealed boxes, but sealed provides better response, as well as better power handling. Also, different subs are intended to perform better in one type of enclosure as opposed to another, and this is usually listed with the subwoofer's specifications-not only what type of box, but what size is best as well.

It depends on what the sub, kind of music, and space. The sub I got is a 12" kenwood powered by an MTX amp. I custom built the box myself. There was an equation that came with the sub that would tell how much volume the box should have if you wanted tighter or deeper bass. I chose tighter hard hitting bass because I listen to rock mostly. And my sealed box fits perfectly down in the recessed part of the trunk. Sealed is easier to build also if your going to build your own box. But it really depends more on what you want. Sealed=Less space taken up, easier to build(if you build it yourself), and tighter bass. Ported=More space, sounds better most of the time(Depending on music IMO), and harder to build.

Tony

SQ= sealed
SPL= ported

generally ported will be louder than sealed with the same power, but at a loss of SQ.