I stopped by a local audio shop today with a box I built to fit inside the well of my car. I told them that this box was the only box I could use for my application and that I will looking for advice on certain subs that would sound good in this box sealed. The box measures 24x11x11. He says I will never get the sound I am looking for in this box with it sealed up. I told him I was looking for SQ and maybe a little SQL if that makes sense. The box is only big enough for a 10" sub. He really couldnt help me at all. He was trying to lead me into havbing him build me a custom ported box but thats not happening. I also told him I was powering it with a Kicker KX600.1 ampo and that the sub will be running on 2 ohms so that the amp will put out 600RMS watts. Is this guy correct or should I look elsewhere for advice on a sub for this box? Im not trying to rush this but I really need to purchase a sub very soon so I can contiune putting my interior back togheter once the box is in.

 

I haven't done any systems yet, but from what I understand a ported box will give you the loud boomy bass and a sealed box will give you sound qualty. I've also heard that with the ported boxes they only play one note, where as the sealed can play over a range of frequencies.

That's what I've heard from the internet/misc. forums like this one. I'm not sure I trust stereo shops, last week I went to one asking for an infinity amp and polk speakes and the guy recomended pioneer crap, so whatever...

 

dude, I have a sealed box with a Alpine Type R 10 in it. running 400 Watts and it sounds great to me. find a new shop, that guy is a tool.

ported boxes are tuned to a certain Hz. or basically one note so to speak. thats not sayig that it will play only that note, but at a given DB that Hz will be louder. What Hz to tune to depends on the driver (sub driver, not car driver... ) wait for Gummi or JimIroc to chime in, they will baffle you with graphs and math equations, but basically say the same thing... that shop guy is a tool.

 

those guys are right. sealed box gives you a tighter, more accurate sound. usually a sealed box requires more power though. you can get a louder sound with a ported box and it requires less power, but then it sounds like all the notes blend together. i prefer the sealed box.

 

Sealed is the ****. Ported boxes and Bandbass enclosures will give you louder sound with the same power, but at the expense of quality. All types of boxes are tunable to different frequencies by changing box dimensions, but in general, sealed boxes will give a flatter frequency response with the same subs. Sealed boxes can also be smaller. The idea volume is typically given in the sub specs.

For example, I am currently building a system with one JBL GTO 1204D subwoofer. The specs recommend 1 ft3 for a sealed box, and the sub handles 300W RMS. I will be building a 1 ft3 box and pushing the sub with a 400W RMS amp. It is better, when using a sealed box, to overpower the sub than to underpower it. This ensures clean, acurate sound without distortion...unless you plan on having constant bass at near-maximum volume...then you might break something. This sub is rated at 1200W peak, though, so I think it'll be fine.

 

keep the sealed box and go elsewhere

 

It's important to note that ported boxes can sound good in the right application. The one note wonder type of ported box everyone has been describing can be easily avoided if you tune the box to a lower frequency. A properly designed ported box that’s tuned low will give you all the benefits of a sealed box (good transient response) while allowing you to play significantly lower notes. There are two downsides to this. First, a box along these lines needs to be fairly large. We're talking between 3 or 5 cubes on average. Second, small listening areas (ie cars) have an anomaly called cabin gain. It’s a boost in lower frequency sound that usually matches the roll off of a sealed box pretty well, which allows you to maintain an almost flat response in a car even when the same box would roll off relatively high in a larger open area.

Ported is more suited for the HT arena where boxes of this size are more practical and the listening area is a good deal larger.

 

That's got to be the worst shop I've have ever been told about. Are you kidding us? Has this guy ever heard sealed box in a hatch? I was running two 12" rockford P1 subs with a 300rms watt amp bridged and at full volume with the gain on the amp turned to a kittke over half. With clearity and quality it would make your ear drums hurt. That 10 at 400rms should be excellent.

 

before we all start complaining about the shop, let's learn a little more about the situation.

What sub are you using? Some subs absolutely DO perform better in ported applications than sealed, though there are less and less of them all the time in car audio applications.

However, as a general rule, Gummie has it right. A properly built ported enclosure is not necessarily a bad sounding arrangement, but when combined with cabin gain, can be very bottom-heavy. I tend to like a bottom heavy sound in a car though because with a flat response, your bass gets totally lost under the road noise & exhaust, and by having a rising low frequency response, it helps to get it above the noise floor for a more natural sound when driving, but at the expense of fidelity when parked.

 

I have no idea on a sub right now. I was steering towards a Kicker Solobaric but IM hearing that it needs a ported box and alot of air space to shine. Some have said to stick with a JL because they perform well in small sealed boxes and do well for SQ. I just dont want to spend big money on a sub and find out its not what I wanted.

On a side note, would the JLW3 or W6 be better suited for the Kicker KX600.1 running at 2 ohms? My box has 1.3 cubic feet

 

I bought a JBL GTO1204D on crutchfield for $80. That seems pretty good to me, but the amp isn't here yet, so we'll see...

 

A lot of the early square Kicker subs required enormous boxes to sound right, and I don't think that's really changed with their newer ones.

JL's work well in small to medium sized sealed enclosures, and still play real deep in a sealed box. They're one of my favorite "big name" brands. A W3 or a W6 will work well with that amp, though if you want to take advantage of all the power, the W6 would probably be a better choice.

One sub that I'd choose if I was building this system would be a Dayton RSS265HO-4. It's a 10" sub from Parts Express that's got outstanding build quality, and is very well designed. The sound quality should be well beyond anything else in it's price range by a wide margin. This is only available in a 4 ohm configuration, so your amp won't make as much power, but the Dayton has a higher efficiency than the JL, so it should play just as loud, and it'll do it without taxing your electrical system so heavily.

 

JL is a great company, don't get me wrong, but you can get the same or better product at a much lower price point.

I'm too lazy to post everything again so check out this thread for a pretty good list of companies and their offerings: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/car-...companies.html

 

you might check on the vega HED series...they require very little airspace , very little power to drive due to their high sensitivity and are alomst indestructable. the 10 is rated 200wrms. extremely inexpensive as well. i had under the rear seat in a silverado and they were super tight and clean and rattled ears...

 

The problem is, you can't have your cake and eat it too. There are 3 things that everybody wants out of a sub: deep bass, high sensitivity, and a small enclosure. Unfortunately, Hoffman's Iron Law stipulates that you only get to pick 2 of the three. A high sensitivity sub that works in a small enclosure won't have the kind of deep bass extention as a sub that has lower sensitivity or is designed for a larger enclosure. Because power is so cheap these days, high sensitivity subs really aren't as big of a deal as they used to be.

 

I am running the same Kicker 600.1 amp you are with 2 Rockford P1's with a sealed box and it sounds great and hits VERY hard.