Sealed vs Ported Subwoofers: Which is Better?

Ever wonder what the differences are between sealed vs ported subwoofers and which design is best? We discuss ALL of the pros and cons of each design and address the myth of "slow" vs "musical" subs and what is actually going on in those cases.

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[PoesAcoustics]

Gene mentioned the room transition frequency in our video and i see some were not sure what that is. The room transition frequency, Schroeder frequency, or room FS refers to a point at which the room transitions from modal to stochastic behavior.

Say what?

If you look at the measurements in a room you will see that from 20hz to 50hz the room goes from just one mode to a small handful of widely spaced modes. Then from 50hz to about 150hz the room rapidly transitions into many more peaks and dips, the number of modes increases dramatically. After this point the number of modes becomes so high and so dense that you simply can’t see the distinct effect anymore.

The point at which this transition takes place depends on the side of the room and how reverberant it is.

Stochastic means statistical and in simple terms it means that you can understand what the modes are in the room at any point in time or space via a statistical distribution. Further, if you took a sample of measurements with a mic in the same room and never moved the mic, you would find that every measurement (assuming fine enough resolution like little to no smoothing) is slightly different.

The stochastic zone is best treated differently than the modal zone. Modal zone is best treated with things like multiple subwoofers, optimal sub placement, bass traps, and modest EQ. The stochastic zone is best treated with a very different kind of optimal placement, a very different kind of acoustic treatment (such as less absorption, scattering, diffusion, normal reflection), and generally no eq. It’s also a critical region where what the microphone picks up no longer matches well with what our ears hear.

[JohnnieLoveuboundoil]

The three musketeers, yous work so well together, loved every minute

[jasonsullivan]

I really enjoyed this video. It amazes me how much Matt & James know about subwoofers.

[JonathanDFielding]

I recently did a song comparison with deep bass.
Setup 1) JL Audio 10W6v3 in JL's ported high output box w/ JLA 500/1 regulated amplifier
VS
Setup 2) JL Audio flagship 10W7AE in JL's sealed box w/ JLA HD750/1.
I love them both! The ported sub sounds so good and gets nice and deep BUT the sealed sub in my SUV has a TWK88 DSP where I turn down the 50hz, and boost the 35hz with PEQ.
This approach flattened the response much deeper that no PEQ on that sealed sub and guess what!?
It gets deeper than the ported, but at the expense of all the power of the amp (750W) throwing the high excursion 10W7 super hard at the low end, and it sounds so freaking good!

That in my option is by far the better option, if you have the money for high excursion and tons of power. Just look at JL's home theater subs. They're sealed with tons of power and DSP to flatten the response.

[elongatuspiranha]

When hugo left, some of the magic of this channel went with him. This is my favorite video in awhile. Keep up content like this please. This is similar to home theater geeks, which I miss so much..

[thetrumanshow]

I had been using ported subs my whole life, until a few years ago when i picked up a SVS SB-2000 to round out my current greatroom hometheater. All i can say is . . . WOW!
Sealed subs for the win!

[michaelwilliams]

To see James become so animated describing his favourite subwoofers was really enjoyable. He stayed calm when Matt was poking him with a pointy stick about ported subwoofers being best, but when it came to his favourite subs, that was a different matter. Great discussion

[functionaldoc]

What about servo controlled subs? The pro and cons of this design . Love here your thoughts.

[mjnc]

I've had both over the years. For LFE for watching movies, a good ported one will satisfy. For music, I think sealed sounds tighter, accurate and generally more pleasing to listen to.

[LouisGFranco]

This is funny, every time they're going to give their final thoughts they remember a special condition in a very specific set of circumstances and.... Away they go, off to the races again. At the very least six rounds of closing thoughts and if James had to choose one sub it/they would actually take up an entire wall and they wouldn't all be ported. Ported or sealed hmm. I've definitely made up my mind and concluded stick shift is better than an automatic transmission. Well except when there's a lot of traffic. However when driving on the freeway for the vast majority and you need to access the power to overtake a car stick shift. On second thought in an area with plenty of hills automatic transmissions are less stressful. Almost forgot, on performance tracks dual clutch transmissions are best and on mixed street and highway a continually variable speed transmission is the best compromise. Lol

[buzzcrushtrendkill]

Well Gene, you were honest upfront. "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends".

[jeffsloane]

There are so many compromised and bad ported/band pass subwoofers in the market place that looking at ported performance from SVS, HSU or JL does not resonate (ha ha) with the public. While I love the measurements, what we needed to see was the averaged response from every sealed sub and every ported subwoofer ever sold. This would have made the argument a slam dunk for Matt. Then you could have shared the measurement data from SVS and HSU to show your audience that they should focus on the quality of their subwoofer purchase rather than the design type. Lastly would have loved to hear servo subs and the REL recommendation of using high level inputs rather than RCAs thrown in the discussion. Perhaps a part 2? Great video! Thumbs way up guys. Keep em coming.

[avjake]

I'm pretty sure it's damping, not dampening. Unless you're talking about sub(marine)woofers.

[Pentenfi]

It's nice that you mentioned it:the "ported vs sealed" debate seems to be all around subwoofers whereas most speaker designes, even in the high end range, prefer using some sort of ported design (bassreflex, PR, TL, ..).

[roberttroxell]

When I was shopping for subwoofers, I read more than once that ported subs provided powerful bass best suited to home theater systems and watching movies. But ported subs can be too boom-y for music. If music is the primary interest, than a sealed sub fits the system better. I listen mostly to music, so I got two SVS SB2000’s and they compliment my system well.

[ScaleCrawling]

Conclusion at 1:05:45 "If they are designed correctly, the efficiency advantage is worth it."

In other words you get more bang for buck with a ported sub (more output at say 16-24Hz for the money), and its shortcomings shouldn't be audible if you get one with good measured performance.

[fabiozagoo]

Do a video with SB 3000 vs PB 3000, great for compare sealed vs ported. I have two SB 3000 and i love they, amazing sub.

[bobtowncarguy]

Good videos boy's, I love the in depth discussion. Great information for people to chew on.

[ChrisPapas]

The combination of Gene and Matt make the most interesting duo to listen too online regarding hifi. Keep up the good work

[NeilBlanchard]

Face down driver means that any sag of the cone, due to gravity - is more symmetrical.

Sealed designs need more stiffness and more bracing, though this is largely moot, because they can be smaller. A larger box is harder to keep from resonating.