sealed and ported box

[gmanguy 10+ year member]

is it smart to mix a sealed and ported box together in one system. i have 2 12s but only 1 ported box and a small sealed truck box. would it sound good mixing boxes like this?

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[DonH 5,000+ posts]

no

 

[gmanguy 10+ year member]

y?

 

[Glyons]

i dont really understand why one would do this. I guess it could work, but you really should go for one or the other.

 

[Flastrongman 10+ year member]

fail

 

[gmanguy 10+ year member]

i love how everyone just wants to sound like the know the right answer but no one bothers to explain anything so thanks guys.

 

[orphe 10+ year member]

I personaly think that mixing two diffrent flavors together like that is not a good ideia but I have been wrong before

 

[SCcobra4me 10+ year member]

I don't see the harm in it but the only issue I could see is the response of the subs, they will not respond to frequencies at the same exact time and sound a little odd. Are they going to be located in the same spot? Trunk, cab, etc? I would recommend one way or the other.

 

[gmanguy 10+ year member]

well i figured that out by just trying it but no one explained that previously. i expected that but i never tried so i didnt know. i ended up just using the ported box and just 1 sounds the same if not better than 2 in the sealed box with the same amp. i have another question tho and thats where should the port be relative to the sub. its on the same face but should it be standing upwards next to the sub or horizontal below the sub?

 

[scottyk 10+ year member]

well i figured that out by just trying it but no one explained that previously. i expected that but i never tried so i didnt know. i ended up just using the ported box and just 1 sounds the same if not better than 2 in the sealed box with the same amp. i have another question tho and thats where should the port be relative to the sub. its on the same face but should it be standing upwards next to the sub or horizontal below the sub?

To actually elaborate on why it isn't such a great idea, you run into a few problems. One being that the one ported box and the one sealed box are different sizes as far as the amount of airspace. Another being that the boxes are probably also tuned to different frequencies. You can actaully have cancellation of noise if I understand correctly. What more (and I'm not saying I know for sure, just saying), if both of those boxes are pre-fab, not custom/well-made boxes, the response out of both subs will be even worse. Naturally, ported boxes deliver a sort of 'boomier' bass and sealed boxes produce 'tighter' sounding bass (but not always!)

Someone else can get into the nitty gritty details of it if you need more elaboration. Your best bet is to find someone who builds sturdy and well made boxes (many members on here do for a great price) for both of your 12's. That will get you the best response out of your woofers. To your other question, where your port is relative to the box isn't something I'm terribly familiar with as far as what's best. I believe a lot of it has to do with where the box is relative to your car and what sounds best in your specific vehicle.

Hope that helps a bit //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[GAM3OVR 5,000+ posts]

sounds like a ghetto version of a odd 4th order bandpass rofl

 

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

Reasons why not to

1) Different response curves

2) The group delay of the ported box

3) Different mechanical power handling at the same frequency

4) Looks ghetto

 

[Databyter 10+ year member]

I think it might sound a bit muddy since the ported will overshadow some of what the sealed is doing in the same range especially near the tuning, and in the rest of the bass range it will be a bit less sharp, but loud enough to muddle the sq from the sealed at those ranges.

DISCLAIMER: I'm no expert, I'm hear to learn as well, But it seems to me that you're mixing apples and oranges, which depending on the type of music you listen to it could be relatively wasteful and inneficient but unimportant ( Ghetto thump Rap), or a completely horrifiying disaster (i.e. Classical, Jazz, Blues)