How to tune a sub enclosure?

[NoSole]

So I understand the importance of tuning an enclosure to appropriately reinforce the attributes of your specific sub (as is evidenced here: The Importance of Box Tuning), but I don't know how it's actually done. I plan on leaving this to the professionals building my enclosure, but I would still like to understand how they do it, even if it's on a basic level. If any knowledgeable fabricator/audio nut can quickly run it down for me, or refer me to a link that explains how it's done, that would be awesome!

Also, I'm looking for responses from people who actually understand the science of sound and have a first rate knowledge of acoustics and have tuned boxes in the past. Please, no amateurs posting how they 'think' it might be done, or links to things like the RE Audio ported box enclosure calculator. I don't mean to be rude, but I've read a ton of threads and articles on sites and never seen a definitive answer... only suggestions that devolve into subjective criticism.

THANKS!

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[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

that's because there's not a definitive answer.

The mfg will suggest one Fb. Another "expert" will claim a different Fb, yet you may prefer the sound of a 3rd Fb.

My usual procedure is to upload the t/s of the given speaker into winisdpro.

The program will default to the flattest response curve with the lowest extention it can come up with. A lot of the time the enclosure specs of the default plot are not reasonable for use in a car -- for example it may suggest a 10 cu ft enclosure for a 10" sub.

Then I open a second plot using the mfg's recs. I've often contacted the mfg with concerns about how strangely their speaker plots. They usually claim they designed their subs based on in car response which rarely agrees with theoretical plots that are derived from modeling programs.

Unless you have a means to breakdown the sonic characteristics of your car perfectly it's probably at least worth considering the mfg's recs even if the plot doesn't look like something that will sound good.

I went more with winisd for my car encl. The mfg rec'd an enclosure size (~1.5cf) and fb (35) that looked peaky w/o the low end extension I wanted. Winisd came up with something a bit larger (~2.3 IIRC) and tuned lower (27 ish). I made it 2.7 and tuned it to 28. I'm very pleased with performance although I haven't compared it with anything else.

I used the same sub for a home enclosure and made it larger and lower (3.4 @ 25). Happy with that so far as well. I watche d Transformers 2 recently. That soundtrack spends a LOT of time in the 20's.

I don't think you'll ever find THE answer to your question w/o a lot of experimentation.

 

[NoSole]

I don't think you'll ever find THE answer to your question w/o a lot of experimentation.

True, but this has certainly been the most thoughtful answer I've heard thus far. Thanks!

Also, whatever the characteristics of the sub and what fb you're tuning it to, the method should remain the same. I'm just curious how the calculation works. Think I'll check out winisdpro.