What is the optimum enclosure for my new subwoofer?
Most subwoofers come with recommended enclosure volumes in the owner’s manuals. More often than not this enclosure volume is safe allowing for the most ‘home user error’. Specialized shops however use complete manual’s and specialised computer programs to carefully design enclosures for specific applications based on the subwoofers paramters. The following is a very basic crash course on box types (this topic gets very in depth). Sealed Basically as far as sealed is concerned, the relationship between the characterisitics of the speaker being used and the volume of air inside the enclosure dictates the how well the sub will sound. When the enclosure is bigger, the air spring limits cone motion less and allows the system to play lower and with flatter overall response (lower Qtc) at the expense of power handling. Problem is if you go too large you start to compromise efficiency in order to gain the additional low frequency extension. On the other hand, making the enclosure smaller will
