Are Sealed Subwoofers More Musical than Ported Subs?

We discuss IF sealed subwoofers really are more "musical" than ported subs or if it's just a myth needed to be busted. Ported subs tend to be larger and have more low frequency output than similar sealed designs. Can this factor into how "musical" a subwoofer sounds in your room? It is my hopes that this video helps clear some preconceived ideas some audiophiles have about ported and sealed subwoofers.

For a detailed technical article on sealed vs ported subs, read:

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[pbdagrk]

A good subwoofer is a good subwoofer. Wish people understood that. I cringe on so many forums or Facebook groups I visit where these myths are blindly repeated and spewed with regularity.

[cpa]

Female multi sub owner here, I recently switched out my ported subs for sealed and must say it is the best decision I have made for my system. I am enjoying my system much more than before. I don't believe either ported or sealed is better than the other. However, I do believe my room is better suited for sealed subwoofers.

[GamerWordDotNet]

I love my sealed 18" Rhymik F18. I went with sealed because the ported model is ridiculously massive, and my room is medium-sized. 18" gives me all the extension I need and then some.

[FastGXP]

I have tried both ported and sealed subwoofers in my listening environment, and prefer the experience with sealed. An SVS SB16-Ultra to be exact. 👍🏻

[georgesrisomsak]

As a car audio enthusiast, I've learned quite a bit from this channel.

That said, I have many different sub stages, both ported variety, and sealed. I honestly couldn't say if one was more musical than the other. Depends on what I'm listening to, in my opinion, and the volume in which that variety is played. Some bass heavy stuff sounds better sealed, and some music where bass information is low, sounds better ported, due to the gain.

I don't really know much about sq, but I'm learning and channels like this are priceless when trying to figure out what I want.

I have 16 6.5" midbass drivers, and 10 - 1" tweets on the way, 8 woofers and 5 tweeters per door. Looking for loud and decent SQ, I feel it should keep up with the sub stage... Lol!

Thanks for posting, these videos are great. Awesome content, to get the mind thinking and learning.

[ericperry]

For ME, I love the way a properly aligned sealed subwoofer sounds..for music. With movies I prefer a nice vented setup. Now what I'm trying to really get into is a good push push sub setup or a passive radiator setup.

[homeboi]

Sealed subs have less extension, which thus means less room mode interaction, so less problematic. Deeper bass also exists for longer, and so sealed subs with less bass are viewed as “tighter” as they have less audible decay.

[kirkcunningham]

I understand and coincide with audio enthusiasts who want accurate bass for music. Hence choosing subs that they feel sounds the most realistic. However with Home theater, a good quality sealed or ported subwoofer that digs down to at least 20Hz before it starts to roll off will reproduce car crashes, explosions, gun fire and foot stomps just fine and very satisfying.

In real life? A car crash or explosion, thunder, or a big rig truck driving by for example doesn't come through a subwoofer. The sound and subsonic frequencies are all filtered by the objects near by. Meaning, if you're lucky to survive an explosion at 15-20 feet away, the ultrasonic frequencies will be all over the place. Peaks, dips and out of phase. Bouncing off of buildings and objects before it gets to you. So in other words, think about the reality of what you are really trying to reproduce. If you can make your room shake from 80hz to 20hz in phase without huge peaks and dips? You're doing good. Because in real life? There's no such thing as a flat frequency response with bass. You could witness an explosion 200-500 feet away and get a 40-50hz peak with a suck out at 30hz. Or 15hz. So relax, live a little and just try to get the best bass possible without sweating it. Shake the room. It's fun! If you're getting too much at 50hz and it's drowning out lower frequencies, just eq it down. No biggie...sealed or ported.

[Zoomerland]

Nice talk Gene! I am concerned about $, size, service, set up and of course listening. I took advantage of the 30 or 60 day return policies and actually ended up with an RSL 12 in Speedwoofer. I tried both SVS 16 Ultras, Rel T9x, and Kef. For my room the RSL sounded great and the price was right. I did have to pay partial return shipping on 2 of the subs, but I'm happy for now.

[steve_fleming]

Great video, never understood why some self declared audiophiles reject ported subs outright (and some even reject sealed subs too) yet the vast majority of tower and bookshelf speakers are ported especially if they are full range. What's the difference?!

[OlaJustin]

As a black metal guy I've never heard a 4th order sealed box that I've been happy with. Bot thats often sealed boxes with big boxes and large ports. A low FS element in a small sealed box that gives a lot of suspension and lots and lots of power is just beutiful for metal in my ears.

But my beast of a sub in my car is ported, because its so much when your hair leaves your head.

As long as you have the power and the cone area/Xmax and/or tuning that suites your room and the size of your bass head, both types has it merits.

[vikassm]

Both. You gotta get both.
Ported down to 15hz, sealed between 40hz-85hz, SPL matched at the listening position.
Placement, Room & listening position together make such a big difference, any one type of sub driven too hard will almost always set off room modes (boomy).
Different subs to cover a range of frequencies works best for home use (that includes music too, not just HT).

[mrboat]

Would not claim that sealed is more musical, but that ported is just not always necessary, relative to the space they usually need. I lived with ported subs for two years in a music only system. They measured flat to right at around 20hz. Still, they rarely reached below 30+ with the music I listen to, which covers 5 genres. I was housing 10hz of range I rarely used. I only tried sealed when I started building my own. My music still sounded awesome. The sealed versions, seemed to have about the same roll off as the actual music instrument speakers had, in all but extreme cases, that revolved around music equipment set up to produce extremely low sub bass. Not only that, the sealed managed to report sub frequencies down to 20hz, in an audibly pleasing way. Not only that, now I have room for 4 subs, instead of 2.

Finally, I had also come to notice that many who had large ported subs, tended to play them at least 3db hot, emphasizing bass that was simply not meant to be so forward, and almost to the point of being somewhat obnoxious with it. And also revealing some not-so-favorable artifacts in the recordings that were undetectable otherwise, especially with classic rock. I had seen many of these bands live, and the bass was always pretty much level matched, with the mid range being more power oriented and forward.

I use subs to get the bass out of the mid range's cabinet, and to offer optional placement possibilities. I never suffered insufficient bass frequency range with music. To the contrary, with the rather large displacement speakers I tend to employ, I was instead trying to have enough, without rattling the neighbors windows. Sealed, with an F3 in the mid to lower 30hz range, is more potent than most people realize.

[Bigleftyinaz]

I've always used sealed for the fact, I prefer smaller enclosures. I used to think sealed for jazz and ported for bass heavy rap music.
My next home subs will be rhythmik, I believe servo is the way to go, but I am uneducated. I
Like the idea on how the cone can be controlled

[Novilicious]

I split the difference and decided to get a sealed sub with a Passive Radiator. Enter the rel Ti series. I have dual Rel t9is in a 17wide by 25long room and it’s pure magic. Focus on quality over quality when it comes to Bass

[SSJBen]

I prefer sealed because in my room which is a rectangle, I get to put them at all 4 corners PLUS a pair of crowson actuators under my seats. The sealed subs at the corner gets quite a bit of boundary gain which helps everything under 30hz and then I slope them off at 16hz where the crowson actuators then take over to go down to 5hz.

It's the best of both worlds setting for me because everything below 16hz won't wake the entire neighborhood and there's more than enough output above that with 4 sealed subs.

I didn't choose ported because they took just a bit too much space for my little 1400cu ft room.

[Pentenfi]

What you are saying is absolutely correct. If sealed subs were more musical, then hi - fi speakers schould mostly be sealed designs, which they are abviously not. In rooms, the room gain can be so extreme that even a very nicely designed sub will sound like a one note boom box, as soon as it hits lower frequencies with authority.
I think that sealed subs are easier to work with if one does not use equalizers.

[hlaoo]

Which should to buy Sealed or Ported Sub-woofer for multipurpose: listing music and watching movies?

[garysmith]

Gene, you will appreciate this. I have the Martin Logan Classic 9's from the Masterpiece series. I just added the Dynamo 1600X in downward firing config strictly for 2.1 music - NO theater use.

My room is 23x18' and I had a HUGE bump at 25Hz. at my listening position 20' from the speakers. I ordered the 'Perfect Bass Kit' and ran the Anthem Room Correction using my laptop. I selected 5 sampling positions.

WOW, the 25Hz bump was GONE and then I could 'season' to taste with the Martin Logan suggestions for phase (90 degrees) use of the 3rd order filter, and INVERTED signal. Crossover set to 35 Hz. and it is really pretty impressive. The 1600X hardly makes a sound until a symphonic bass drum is struck, or the underscore of the pipeorgan 32' pedal stops are in use! Really a great piece and your video with the Martin Logan rep and Dynamo series was very informative. Thank YOU !

[adaboyz]

I have a 10 inch sealed sub and it gows so low and dynamic for movies! I have a 4 inch ported Dayton audio sub 2.1 system and it sounds great for music at medium levels.