I'm building a new box for my four 12" W3's. I wanted to make it sound loud and clear. This is all going into a 2003 Chevy extended cab. I took out the back seat so I have plenty of space to work with. Will making it ported lose some sound quality?
sealed boxes help produce the natural sounds that the speaker is ment to make with what ever music you are listening to, another advantage is they take up less room
ported boxes still produre nice SQ depending on how well the box is made
Advantages: Easy to build, smaller enclosure size, lean tight sounding bass, better power handling vs. ported design and Linear low bass extension.
Disadvantage: Less efficient as compared to ported design.
The box internal volume should be as close as possible to the recommended by the manufacturer. If a box is smaller than what it is supposed to be, the sound will be tighter, but more amplifier power will be required. If the box is too big, then the sound will be muddy.
Advantages: More output at the tuning frequency as compared to the same woofer in a sealed enclosure, higher efficiency.
Disadvantage: Larger enclosure size, Calculating enclosure and port dimensions more difficult,easy to blow woofer if power handling limit is exceeded.
The box itself acts as an amplifier, yielding to more bass than a sealed enclosure (3 to 4 dB). Ported boxes do not have a linear frequency response. If the box is not built according to specifications, it will not sound good. The box design acts as a filter, cutting off lower frequencies.