Sealed vs Ported Sub Enclosures

Are there any bass heads here? I have been on Veeky Forums for quite sometime but never really come to this thread despite being an avid car enthusiast. The few times a scrolled through, I didn't really have much interest from any of the threads, maybe just bad days.

Anyways, not really sure where else to ask this and forums seem to take forever to answer so I'll ask here.

Recently I bought 2 Memphis Audio SA12D4 slim mount subwoofers. Well the only information I can find about enclosure space needed is .5 cubic feet but didn't specify whether that's for a ported box or sealed. Would I assume they mean for sealed or ported? If ported, how would I know how much room I'd need for a sealed enclosure? I have looked on the original box and Memphis' website for more info but both are vague. Thanks ahead of time for any help.

For sake of the thread, let's discuss which is better, sealed or ported enclosures?

To answer my own question, I like sealed better, not as loud but a lot more precise.

>adding subs
underage b&

Ported will be louder throughout the whole bass spectrum but it will noticeably peak at the resonant frequency by alot. Sealed will have a smoother flatter curve through the bass spectrum.

How does installing subs make me underage? If I was underage I probably wouldn't be trying to properly install them.

Did you know that people who like to keep their music to themselves have confidence issues?

Low confidence beta male... tell me how many women you've slept with right now beta

This also allows for sealed boxes to generally have better low end bass.

it's called buying a car that has a decent system already and not driving a shitbox.

I've never been in a stock vehicle that has a decent enough bass for my taste.

To be fair I drive a 96 Dodge Dakota with 410k miles so shitbox is probably still accurate.

Dubs can't be wrong.

Sealed>ported if you are even remotely looking for accuracy. Ported CAN sound good and be accurate if the box is built to spec and tuned properly, but you're still going to get more boom than bump with it. Ultimately that's what you need to decide. Do you want more boom/do you want to let everybody in the nearby vicinity know you have a sub, then go ported. Otherwise sealed is better in every way.

I agree. Still haven't found an answer to the volume question.

Keep your god damn bass down unless you're out in the middle of nowhere with no houses around to disturb you wanker!

Who said I was going to be banging through residential areas? My current speaker setup can rarely be heard much outside the truck.I'm not looking for loudness, I'm looking for nice, clean bass that you can feel, but not trying to wake up the neighborhood. If I was looking for something loud, I wouldn't have gotten shallow mounts.

the best stock bass ive ever heard was in my gf's '02 shitstang.

0.5 is the minimum size for sealed, ported is always twice the size, so 1.0 minimum for ported.

To a point yes. But you can get lower end bass by just tuning the ported box for a lower frequency.

It's likely sealed or ported, I have 2 Pioneer shallow 10's and they call for the same volume ported or sealed, and function in 0.35-0.7 cubic feet, thankfully pioneer states that 0.6 is the ideal volume for either.

the audio system is almost always the dead last thing on the engineers' minds in a production vehicle

Thanks guys, that helps a lot.

>y current speaker setup can rarely be heard much outside the truck.I

I wish I had that

>I wish I had that
You'd need to install extra high-capacity alternators to handle the power requirements.

Yeah I know. That dual alternator set up in that pic looks pretty bad ass.

I take it that you listen to a lot of music that involves acoustic bass? Sealed is nice as it does not require a lot of room like ported does, though sealed needs more power. I do not think that there is anything wrong with adding more power than required anyways.

Go prep the bull, old man!

Bro that is a twinturo setup.
Don't always believe the pic name.

Any sub in your car is going to sound boomy at some frequency, you have to use DSP and EQ the thing.
Use ported for more efficiency, sealed for compact space limited installs.

>I do not think that there is anything wrong with adding more power than required anyways.
Distortion

>I do not think that there is anything wrong with adding more power than required anyways.
Well, any enclosed space such as a car cabin has a limit on how much audio energy you can pump into its airspace without bounced standing waves causing distortion at the point where your ears are located. So you can pump more power into it, but the sound won't just be louder, but it will also be more distorted even though the speaker is reproducing the sound perfectly and the amplifier is not clipping.

Picture shows ported speakers for a motorcycle.

Rear speakers for this Harley-Davidson motorcycle are located in removable rear side units.

This approach saves the trunk space and keeps the trunk usable for normal things. I suppose you have to make physically strong covers for the speakers in order to protect them from any cargo or spills.

Well like previously mentioned, i have a single cab dakota so space is extremely limited. Otherwise I'd never use shallow mounts. Currently I have the passenger seat removed and a single P1 Rockford Fosgate sitting in its place. Which don't get me wrong, the speaker wasn't the reason the seat was taken out. But i think i want to put two seats back in and make a custom subbox to go behind the seats and then tie into a center console where I've contemplated place the P1 downfiring in just for a little extra bass.

>so space is extremely limited.
Various companies make pre-assembled ultrathin self-powered subwoofer boxes for such purposes. They need power and speaker connections and the rest is done all in that box which also contains the needed amp. Kicker makes one as does Kenwood, Pioneer, and others. There was a blog site with an excellent comparison review of all those products. You'll have to find that site tho.

Remember that fitting something under the seat might not be possible if you have an electrically operated seat. Those often fill up the space with parts and metal rails that leave almost no space if the seat is lowered to the bottom position. It would be comical if you had to set the seat level up to the max in order to fit a subwoofer under the seat. But if anyone lowered the seat while sitting on the seat, their body weight plus the motor would cause the metal to come crunching downwards onto the speaker.

It's beaner as all hell but that would be a pretty badass mobile DJ setup if it had a platform to stand on on the roof of the cab.

>It's beaner as all hell

Most cars have plenty of bass from the factory

>thinking any factory sound system is acceptable
How's your home theatre sound bar going?

Lmao speakers would never fit under my seats. I don't think a single piece of mdf would fit. I have Honda Del Sol seats at the moment that basically sit on the ground. I'm about to through racing buckets in that I just got though. Also before ricer, the seats were given to me for free when all i had was a shitty original bench seat but honestly del sol seats are really comfortable and i would do it again. Also I'd rather make a custom enclosure that way it's to my taste. Also I enjoy building stuff all double win for me. Also I'm going to mold a center console in to it. Currently there is no center console and it's not the most preferable.

What, full audio spectrum is not for old people?

>I don't think a single piece of mdf would fit.
The ones made by kicker and other companies are composite polymer and sintered or cast metal for strength and sound deadening. Otherwise, they could never be thin enough if they used wood. But they would certainly fit behind seats.

>Most cars have plenty of bass from the factory
But they don't have the brute physical "chest thumping" feeling of that deep bass from a powerful amp and subwoofer speaker.

Old people don't add excessive chest thumping bass that can be heard in the next car lane. It's always teens and man-children who crank it up so that the bass makes other nearby cars shake. That's why that poster said "underage b&" for your comment.

>I like sealed better, not as loud but a lot more precise.
But you don't want bass to be precise. Bass tends to be non-directional. Precise audio has the characteristic that the stereo sweet spot is small and usually in the center unless it is electronically steered by audio processing.

>Ported
>Efficiency
I always knew tripcutns were retards, but damn.

If you are looking at apparent audio volume for the same amount of power used, then yes.

>thinks ported is less efficient than sealed
>calls me retarded
bro what the actual fuck, read a book you dumb nigger

You are mixing your metaphors
The directionality of sound depends on the frequency not on sealed vs ported. You cannot make low frequencies more directional with your enclosure type.

Once again, two shallow mount speakers aren't going to make any surrounding cars shake. I'm not wanting to make it so others can hear my music, just to where it sounds better for me. And yet I'm the underage bait whilst have of the people in this thread either don't listen, are actually fucking stupid, or maybe they're the real underage bait. Idk. Thanks to the other half that actually helped.

Half*
Not have