Sealed vs Ported - An Age-Old Debate?

It's exciting to meet someone who is passionate about bass. These people also tend to have their preferences. At Bassworx, we meet some people who swear by their sealed box setup; others who will only ever use a ported box. So which is best?

Fortunately or unfortunately, the answer is: it depends.

Regardless of what you use, it's important that you are at least using an enclosure to help produce a full sound out of your speaker. We've been at this for awhile and are proud to produce both sealed and ported enclosures that reflect our knowledge of sound engineering. The volume of our enclosures are designed to optimize the sound output of your speakers, regardless of the vehicle in which they are installed.

Long story short, a sealed enclosure is designed to create crisp, clear sound. With this type of box, your speakers will produce a "flat" response. Flat response means accurate sound. Your subwoofer will produce nearly the same level of loudness across every frequency. Ported enclosures create a deeper more booming sound, better for hip-hop & dubstep beats. Your sub(s) will produce a more distorted sound, which many people tend to prefer.

It really comes down to preference, and whatever way you shake it down, just play it loud...

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The Matrix

Three years ago now, we introduced an industry first…The Matrix.  Being a leader and innovator in enclosure design and manufacturing, one would expect that Bassworx be the first to develop a tool to help match a subwoofer to an enclosure.  As we all know, just because something fits in a hole doesn't necessarily mean it belongs there.  And I’m not referring to the infamous ‘rabbit hole’!

Joe Saraceno shows the Bassworx 'MATRIX'
that matches subs to enclosures.

Why wouldn’t you drop a sub into just any box?  Well, it’s simply a relationship thing.  All subwoofers are engineered using the same criteria of parameters…also known as Thiele-Small, or TS for short.  When you mash up all those specifications, such as free-air resonance, mechanical and electrical Q, compliance, magnetic flux, etc…etc…etc…you end up with an ‘acoustic transducer’…a speaker…or in our world, a subwoofer.  That said subwoofer will operate within a certain volume to reach it’s safe and optimum performance.  The Matrix will identify what is the ‘perfect’ enclosure to achieve this, as well as rank other enclosures with ratings of ‘great, good, or not recommended’.  If life could just be that easy!

A short year later, we took the Matrix ‘off-online’, sort of speak.  We developed an ‘app’ for the ever-popular iPhone and iPod Touch.  No longer did you need the internet to access our extensive woofer database.  This allowed the Bassworx Matrix for iPhone to be much more accessible to those who need it.  Our dealers now had the opportunity to empower their sales associates with a tool that aids in professionally building subwoofer systems.  And consumers can be sure the sales person will sell them what they need.

The MATRIX for iPhone

The Matrix, as we like to think of it, is there to make the lives of bass-heads that much better.  A happy woofer makes a happy boomer!  You can find this awesome tool on our website, www.bassworx.com/matrix.  Or, find the ‘app’ on iTunes…it’s FREE!

- Bruno Gomes

Looking for other car audio blogs? Here's some we like!

Car Audio Blog

Online Car Stereo

Who is Bassworx?

"Who am I?"  - Derek Zoolander

Who is Bassworx?

The company was born of a vision to offer premium enclosures at a price that would rival the ‘fuzzy box’. Having come up from the install bay myself, where I built my share of carpet enclosures, I knew that we were on to something.  Car audio enthusiasts had but one option for a cosmetically enhanced design - custom fabrication.  That was a solution that most simply could not afford.

Bassworx stepped in with the answer…and it came in the form of lacquer painted front baffle enclosures offered in a multitude of colours.  The ‘glossy’ box, as many called it, used a baffle that recessed the woofer to appear custom installed, while achieving a price that was as affordable as an ‘installer-built’ carpet enclosure.  Had you asked your local 12 volt shop to build one, it would have cost you 3 or 4 times the price.

With the power of mass production, we jumped both feet into what would become a ‘revolution’ in pre-fabricated enclosures.  Since then, Bassworx has grown leaps and bounds, selling it’s enclosures to more than 20 countries around the world.  Our cosmetically enhanced designs put Bassworx on the map, and would soon catch the eyes of our competitors.  As they say, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”.

- Bruno Gomes

Woofer and Midrange

Let's look at the guts of the Woofer and the Midrange.

The woofer is normally the largest driver in a speaker cabinet and it is designed to produce the low frequencies, like those associated with a bass or drum for music or thunder and explosions in home theater. A midrange looks just like the woofer but is typically smaller. The midrange band of frequencies produces the sounds to which the human ear is particularly sensitive, like vocals in music and dialog in home theater.

THE WOOFER AND MIDRANGE HAVE VIRTUALLY IDENTICAL COMPONENTS, HERE ARE THE KEY PARTS.

Magnet: The donut shaped magnet surrounds the pole piece to create a magnetic field.

Voice Coil: The voice coil is made of two parts: The cylinder or former, which fits over the pole piece, and the copper wire wound around it. It is the driving element of a dynamic driver. Electrical current through the wire creates a magnetic field that interacts with the fixed field of the magnet, causing the voice coil assembly to move.

Pole Piece: Part of the magnet assembly, the voice coil fits over the pole piece.

Spider: A ridged, material suspension that holds the voice coil in place and provided alinear motion.

Cone: The conical shaped diaphragm that physically moves the air to produce sound. It is suspended at its periphery by a surround and at its neck by a spider.

Surround: The compliant suspension at the outer edge of a cone that permits it to move.

Basket: The framework of a dynamic driver