Too much bass, not enough PUNCH. Read.

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Exactly, hence in VERY general terms. Try to tell me any more than 1% of ported boxes out there in the car audio world play flat IN CAR. You'd be much better off sealed in most every case if you are going for that. Exceptions are out there, sure, but for the purpose of this generally noob discussion, I still say I'm right //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

Well if you want to talk about in car response, you'll be hard pressed to find any sub system that plays flat in car. The car itself will see to that. However, if what you are going for is a strong bottom end for musical reproduction, you actually want a ported enclosure. The lower F3 point coupled with the cabin gain of the car will result in a slight hump in the lower bass region. A sealed setup does the same thing but instead of a hump, it is a steady rise starting at the main freq of the cabin gain. Neither is perfectly flat, or even close to it.

What it all comes down to like I said earlier is matching the enclosure to the sub. Some subs need a ported box to sound good with music. Put them in a sealed box, and you end up with muddy bass and no detail. There are also subs that will never sound good in any ported enclosure you might design for them. You can get them close to a flat response, but the group delay will kill any attempt at accuracy.

Even in the most general terms, your point can't be backed up. Like most generalizations it's based on a few stereotypical cases and once you deviate from those cases to cover the rest of 90% of reality, it's just generally wrong.

 

[Hundreth 10+ year member]

Put them in a sealed box, and you end up with muddy bass and no detail.

Not arguing with you, just thought it would be worthwhile to mention that sealed boxes can also be "tuned" to give the desired sound.

When I first started running my sub sealed, it sounded very muddy just like you and the threadstarter describe. After I changed to a smaller sealed box, it was perfect and gave me a good amount of low bass while still remaining tight and accurate.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Not arguing with you, just thought it would be worthwhile to mention that sealed boxes can also be "tuned" to give the desired sound.
When I first started running my sub sealed, it sounded very muddy just like you and the threadstarter describe. After I changed to a smaller sealed box, it was perfect and gave me a good amount of low bass while still remaining tight and accurate.

That worked in your case, with the subs that you have. It doesn't work with all subs. The W4 series subs that JL had out a few years ago could not be made to sound good in a sealed enclosure. The original W6 were the same way with ported. Matching the size of the enclosure to the sub is just as important as matching the type. Get it wrong on either account and the result will be less than satisfying as far as fidelity goes.

Matching the sub with an enclosure to get the desired effect is what building a subwoofer system is all about. It doesn't matter if the enclosure is sealed or ported, what matters is that it is right for the sub in both type, size and, in the case of ported enclosures, tuning.