SQ Guys Who Went From Sealed to Ported?

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

sealed by the time i decided that though i was in my mid 20's and bass was boring me. things were flip flopped towards sq though back then as far as competing and so forth.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

i went from sealed to ported to sealed to infinite baffle.

pair of idq15's for the win.

i like infinite baffle the best.

lol. hey dave. ibftw.

 

[bk12321 10+ year member]

went ported to sealed back to very low tuned ported to IB then back to sealed. ib was by far the best

Ive never really heard/read much about ib, just not my cup of tea i guess

how was it compared to both ported and sealed

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

Ive never really heard/read much about ib
how was it compared to both ported and sealed

just imagine cleaner more realistic sound that even if you boosted the bajeebers out of it still sounded better than sealed. very realistic

 

[WhoSayWho? 5,000+ posts]

If u port to specs I bet u u will be surprised how good itll sound, how much power r u giving it

good question. The amp is a Cadence Daytona 1000.1, which is rated at 1K rms. However, I am not sure how much I am really sending -- esp considering I have not upgraded my electrical -- stcok 70 amp and regular battery.

 

[bk12321 10+ year member]

just imagine cleaner more realistic sound that even if you boosted the bajeebers out of it still sounded better than sealed. very realistic

how was the output, in terms of spl

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

i went from sealed to ported to sealed to infinite baffle.
pair of idq15's for the win.

i like infinite baffle the best.

lol. hey dave. ibftw.

win some horns?

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

how was the output, in terms of spl

2 idw 15's on an ac 160 meter 147-149. on a tl its probably 140-142 db but the majority of the volume was comeing from 30 hz and under lol

 

[Savstyle 10+ year member]

It depended on the sub for me, my claw basket mag i prefer the sound sealed but the output isnt there, so it is ported for it now with 600 or rms. For my type R i didnt like the sound of it much at all so i beat it to hell, but it sounded by far the best in a lower tuned box 32 hz i think it was. And with my XXX i loved it sealed. The output was there and all, then i went ported and was hooked up by how loud it was, but prolly would have went sealed if the box wasnt such a ***** to get out of my trunk.

These ib setups sound interesting, wish somone was near me so i could hear a setup and see if it was worht persueing in my car.

But anyways it was really sub dependent for me

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

also when it sounds that good with some rumble i dont think you would/could complain...but then again some people get super subs and crank them up and think they sound awesome...i dont but i am from an earlier era

 

[chillin 10+ year member]

can you tell by the specs on the sub whether it will be better in a specific box?

 

[lebomb 10+ year member]

Went from sealed to ported at 40hz, back to sealed and finally to ported at 34hz..........Im real happy now.

 

[T3mpest 10+ year member]

hmmmm, I have an IDQ10 that I wish I had tried ported at some point. Not using it now. ID really encourages sealed -- but I have seen several people say the ported is the was to go with them.
The only thing I read that I did not like is where you say your current setup is not very flat. I prefer flat.

stick with sealed. The entire advantage to ported is you get a boost over a given set of freqeuencies, just before you drop like a rock past tuning. Group delay can tend to bite you in the ass too. Your not listening to bass heavy music anyway, so the extra ouput it useless.

 

[2wheeler 10+ year member]

hmmmm, I have an IDQ10 that I wish I had tried ported at some point. Not using it now. ID really encourages sealed -- but I have seen several people say the ported is the was to go with them.
The only thing I read that I did not like is where you say your current setup is not very flat. I prefer flat.

I'm running a single IDQ10, I had it in a sealed box that was a little too big, (.68 vs .60 recommended IIRC) but the output on 400w wasn't quite what I wanted. I talked to Eric at ID and rebuilt my box at .74 ported at 32hz. Much better output, just a tiny bit more boomy at times. Still very good sq to my untrained ears and the output sounds like I added a second sub/amp.

Very good guys at ID, BTW. I called looking to get info on buying different subs and they helped me get what I wanted with the sub I already had. I'm looking at new comps and IDs are at the top of the list.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

the only problem with IB imo is that you sacrifice volume. so in order to make up for that, i doubled my cone area.

the asskicking heartstopping bass is NOT there if thats what you mean. its still ****in loud. i did a 139 on the TL with my IDQ's IB with 600w.

so its not quiet. but there are setups that can get a lot louder, but not many can sound better imo.

 

[iceteebone 5,000+ posts]

can you tell by the specs on the sub whether it will be better in a specific box?

if you have a program like bass box pro it'll tell you from entering ts parameters

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

stick with sealed. The entire advantage to ported is you get a boost over a given set of freqeuencies, just before you drop like a rock past tuning. Group delay can tend to bite you in the ass too. Your not listening to bass heavy music anyway, so the extra ouput it useless.

Even in a large enclosure tuned around 30hz, an IDQ will have a completely inaudible group delay.

I also wouldn't say the extra output is useless. It can be nice having some low end fill for songs you might not notice it on. For example, My Chemical Romance's song "The Ghost of You" has some 28hz material in it that I never noticed in my setup before I went ported. It gives the song a new depth that it didn't have. It doesn't make it crazy loud and overwhelming but it lets you know the material is there.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Unless you have a sub with a really low Fs in a really big sealed box, you will totally hamstring its output going sealed especially in the sub bass region which is what you ant is to play in the first place. In most cases you will be low passing it less than 1 octave above the F3 and the peak output will be reduced by 3-6dB. In an SQ oriented system where the LPF is typically set even lower you will need a ton of power or cone area to get the subs to blend with the front stage. Enter the ported box with a boost in efficiency in the region below the F3 of the sealed and peak output is not affected by a low LPF. If the box is right for the sub, group delay isn't an issue either.

'03 model XXX 2 cf @ 28hz. Accurate as hell and blended quite well with my front stage running 100 watts per side. This was with only 400 watts on the sub. Response was nice and flat, too.

 

[dvrmstrng 5,000+ posts]

so say a sub like a 18"Q....low fs...maybe the reason people have been unhappy with it in a sealed enclosure is because there not making it a large enough one?

 

[Justintoxicated 10+ year member]

Having both a ported box and Sealed box I ended up going back to sealed and doubling up on subs and power. To me it sounds much better all around, for many types of music. I found myself constantly adjusting sub output level while driving with my ported box. My ported box was tuned to high for SQ but I still feel that I would get better over all sound from 2 sealed subs over one ported.

I listen to Rock, Rap, Blues (like slightly stoopid, jack johnson etc) metal, and even talk radio.

I'm also finding that a single 10" ported will take up slightly less space than 2 10" sealed and can have more ouput in general. Both my boxes made the area under the rear seats in my truck useless so I figured I may was well go with 2 subs sealed.

Now some subs will not lose as much SQ as others going ported, and some subs lose more output than others when you change them to sealed as well.

Still I'm happier with my downfire subs sealed even though I don't have the perfect enclosure for them. Peoples opinions may differ and i have heard a nice TC 15 in a low tuned ported box that sounded excelent, but it did not have the higher frequency punch, If you tune your ported box for higher frequencies they will lack lowend etc...The Sealed is more balanced but ALOT less efficient. Ported can sound good as well so it is not always a straight forward easy decision.