The few subs I've ever installed in my car have just been slapped together (properly) but never taken much notice of the difference between sealed and ported, and how they are tuned.

I've only ever had sealed boxes. Last was a IDQ10V2 in a sealed box. I have no idea what it was 'tuned' to. Are sealed boxes even tuned, or do you just put them together and that's it? Then they are tuned at a set hz depending on the size of the enclosure?

With ported, I always hear of guys tuning their box to say 30hz or whatever they choose. Why do they do this and what does it achieve? Does it allow them to play lower?

Only reason I ask is because I am considering getting another IDQ sub again, and putting it in a sealed box. But wonder if it can't play as low as a ported box, isn't efficient enough etc?
If this is the case, I would rather grab something such as the Digital Designs DDLE loaded enclosures. They have an inferior woofer in something along the lines of a 500 series, but at least their enclosure and sub are matched properly and are tuned to 31hz.



End of noob questions. beercheers.gif

 

Your amp and sub are going to need to be tuned according to the sub and amp specs. Don't include the enclosure. You want an enclosure with the proper depth and airspace for the sub for max sound quality out of the sub, but can still achieve an alright sound out of a box that doesn't meet that. What kind of music are you listening to? A sealed enclosure will keep your bass a lot tighter and cleaner, but if you're a total bass head and don't care about the crisp punch as well as hearing the rest of the music, you can go for the ported. IMO, ported is sloppy and gives you more punch, but not a controlled punch.