Any experience with Boston Acousitics subs in sealed vs. ported boxes?

[ckunke002 10+ year member]

I have a single 12 inch Boston G3 sub which I love, it's an amazing sounding sub. I have it running at about 450 watts in the cabin (not in my trunk) but even still the sound of my motor/winter wheels/exhaust overwhelm it and I have to have it up almost all the way to hear it well. It sounds very accurate and clean, but it's lacking in power and presence.

Before my current setup I was running a Memphis Audio 12 inch sub in a ported box (have no idea about the port size or tuning or anything, shop did it for me). To me the sub seemed to be high quality but the sound was too boomy and the bass didn't sound very different from song to song. It lacked in the tightness and accuracy that I have now.

I don't know whether I need to get a more powerful sub, or if there's a certain way to tune a box so that it's loud AND tight and accurate or what. The manual for my sub says tuning recommendation is 33 hz, what does this even mean exactly? Any feedback highly appreciated! Thanks

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[DoesDad 10+ year member]

What do you have it in right now? A sealed? I believe BA calls for 2 cu. ft. ported between 32-36. They are nice subs! Get em' while you can. BA is now out of the car audio business. Putting it in a nice ported enclosure will definitely give you more output vs. a sealed enclosure. And tuning it at 33 is going to give you a decent sound. It can be tuned anywhere from 28-36 and hit the lows and sound good. Reason you don't want it in a higher tuned ported box is that it will be probably be louder but the SQ goes away. Most of the crappy prefab boxes are tuned way to high and made with inferior materials. That's why people will steer you towards getting a custom built by someone who knows what they're doing.

 

[ckunke002 10+ year member]

Sorry, forgot to mention. I am currently in a .9 cubic foot sealed with polyfill. They really quite making em? Thats a shame, amazing quality out of those drivers.

So do you recommend a switch over to ported or will I lose a lot of my clean tight sound?

 

---------- Post added at 09:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:49 PM ----------

 

Also, what is a reasonable price to have a custom built ported box tuned to specs?

 

[DoesDad 10+ year member]

You will get a night and day kind of difference taking it from that sealed to ported. You won't lose any of the cleanness you have either. In fact, you're probably going to wonder why you didn't do it sooner... Lol! A single sub enclosure that's relatively small at 2 cubes shouldn't be very expensive. Do you have anyone local? It would save you on shipping costs cause they get to be pretty awkward and heavy. Another option is pro-rabbit does DIY enclosures. He sends you all the pre-cut wood and you slap it together. It's pretty easy if you have some glue, screws and a little ability....

 

[THATpurpleKUSH 5,000+ posts]

All BA subs love low tuned ported boxes. The lower down the line you go, the more you loose out on spl and the 30-50hz region with a sealed box. I have ran g1s and g5s ported and sealed. Put that g3 in 2 cubes with either 1 4in or 2 3in ports tuned in the low 30s. I guarantee you will love it. You will still have that nice and tight sound on the kick drums.

 

[ckunke002 10+ year member]

Thanks guys! Anyone else have any feedback? BTW I emailed and sent Pro Rabbit a message with no response yet, how often do they usually check their stuff and get back to customers?