Benefit of a wall vs. a standard ported enclosure?

[psych0ticnemes1 5,000+ posts]

Is there a benefit to sealing off the cabin or are walls exclusively used because of volume constraints?

Would there be a difference in SPL going from a standard ported enclosure to a wall with the same volume and tuning?

The only thing I can come up with is that the cabin volume would shrink, reducing the total amount of air around the box. I'm not sure how having less air in the cabin to move would impact the spl level.

Thanks for your help.

-Psych0

Click to read more...

 

[VWBobby 10+ year member]

I would think that a solidly built box would have better performance than a cabin that flexes.

Everyone is going to say that it comes down to "install"....

Some of the highest SPL vehicles have reinforced walls and lots of flat surfaces inside the vehicle. Almost no real interior. Their goal is not to dampen the sound with dampener, but instead to use hard surfaces and try to focus the sound waves towards the mic.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[psych0ticnemes1 5,000+ posts]

Thanks man.

What about if you built a standard ported enclosure, but used a false wall/ baffle to seal off the cabin? Do you think there would be any added benefit to doing that?

 

[VWBobby 10+ year member]

It depends on where the mic is placed in that case. Some orgs mic the windshield in front the passenger. Others mic up by the headrest in a normal listener's position. Outlaw is in the door panel or kick. The idea would be to seal up the cabin to prevent flex, pressure escape, etc and try to focus the waves in the general direction of the mic. Even this will take a lot of trial and error for the highest SPL numbers.

This type of system probably wouldn't "sound" good, but it would hit high numbers if you can prevent all the flex and dampening effect.

 

[psych0ticnemes1 5,000+ posts]

I'm just trying to be as loud as I can for regular music. I thought maybe a wall would make it "feel" louder. I'm not really concerned with actual SPL numbers at this point.