Optimum sealed vs small ported

[Gatorfooseball08 2]

Ive spent all day trying to figure out how to calculate ports and design a box that would fit in my truck like i want it, now im wondering is it even worth it? In yalls opinion what would sound better for a 10" dcon, a small ported box or the optimum sealed. Either box would be sitting in the center of the backseat with the sub firing up in a Crew Cab Colorado. Amp would give 420+ RMS at 2 Ohms or 210+ RMS at 4 Ohms. Just dreaming atm but thats half the fun. Thanks in advance for all the help

[jcarter1885 995]

Its not what is better for the Dcon, its whats better for you goals or application. Usually ported will have more output than a sealed box, if your man goal is output then go ported but if not then go sealed. Either will have good output and great sound quality so the choice is yours. If you need help with a ported design Im sure someone on here will help you out but if you dont want to go that route then a sealed box will be easier and perform just as good. Just my .02

[KU40 173]

If you tell us exactly how much room you have, that would help our recommendations.

For the record, I once built an optimum sealed box for 4 12s, then later tried porting it to 40 hz. They metered the exact same. Granted the port cut down on box size a little, I think it went from 4 cubes net to about 3.5.

[Kanaworm$ 292]

I have my DCON in a 1.3ft^3 tuned to 33HZ and it sounds great! Have never tried it in a sealed enclosure yet but i'm sure it sounds just as good! Try the sealed box first, if your not happy try it in a ported enclosure. SHould be able to get 2 boxes out of 1 sheet of 3/4" mdf.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

To add to the above posts, if you can fit small ported for the Dcon, go for it. It really opens up ported, with no loss of clarity if put in a proper built box.

[Gatorfooseball08 2]

I can push maybe 18" deep, width up to 12 1/2", and then im gonna go up as far as i need to. If i can keep it below 16" that would be amazing but when i tried to work out the port length it would of ended up like 20" tall. I wasn't really excited about that. The other thing that caught my eye is guys running ICONs at low power, just wondering if that was in ported or sealed boxes. I would guess ported but just a thought. Im looking for SQ just so there arent any more questions

Edited March 25, 2010 by Gatorfooseball08

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

People have to get past this stigma the just because a speaker, such as the Icon, that is ratted at 1000 watts needs 1000+ watts just to play. . That is very far from the reality, capacity and required are two different things. We have/had guys running less then 500 watts on the Xcon's, saying it was plenty of power, less then 1/3rd rms. The Icon will sound awesome sealed with 240 watts, trust me. But if more output is wanted then ported and/or more power is an option not required. The Dcon is a great driver as you can put it in a small ported box off a few hundred watts and get great sound and surprising output for a reasonable price.

[Gatorfooseball08 2]

Ive heard from alot of people that an underpowered amp is still bad on the sub. Is that just if the signal is clipped? And isn't that normally the deck more then the amp? Srry to bother everyone here but im just curious and there is alot of misinformation out there. Atleast here I feel like i can trust what i hear.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

They are flat out wrong. And yes, it is about poor gain settings by inexperienced users. There is no such thing as 'underpowering'. On average, ported enclosures can be more efficient around tuning. So like I mentioned, based off your posts, put the Dcon in the small ported enclosure.

[Kanaworm$ 292]

^^^ X2