That said, it’s a myth to say that sealed can’t be great for home theater. Home Theater Systems – For maximum dynamic impact and deep bass extension, ported subwoofers have the edge over sealed, which is why they are generally considered better for home theater.Room Size and Available Floor Space – Sealed subwoofers are much more compact and tend to work better in small rooms and mixed media areas where space is at a premium.
#Speaker enclosure design ported movie#
While Sealed mode unquestionably has the lowest overall group delay, the two ported modes also have exemplary time domain behavior >30 Hz and can deliver excellent sound on music, as well as stellar movie performance.īoth sealed and ported alignments have strengths and advantages, and which type of subwoofer is best for a given application depends on several variables. Note the group delay curves for all three modes are coincident from 120 Hz-30 Hz (which covers the typical music bandwidth), only diverging at the very deepest frequencies. The graph shows group delay curves for a variable tune ported subwoofer in 20 Hz ported, 16 Hz ported and Sealed operating modes. By doing this, SVS subwoofers remain accurate in frequency response and maintain crisp speed in transients so you don’t experience the “bloat” or “boominess” found in lesser ported subwoofers. The deep system tuning frequency shifts port-induced phase rotation and associated group delay below the typical music bandwidth, where we are relatively insensitive to it. SVS ported subwoofers have a flat frequency response, low distortion, excellent bandwidth linearity and a very deep tuning frequency (typically 20 Hz or deeper). These subwoofers don’t sound bad on music because they are ported they sound bad on music (and movies too) simply because they are bad subwoofers. This reputation was largely earned by the public suffering through decades of small, ported boom boxes so common in 5.1 home-theater-in-a-box systems and brick/mortar retail outlets. One of the most persistent myths in the audio industry is that ported subwoofers perform poorly on music. Red Line = 1.5 Cycles Group Delay (commonly accepted perception threshold) Courtesy Audioholics PB13-Ultra Review (used with permission).Purple Line = 16 Hz Ported Group Delay Curve Blue Line = 1 Cycle of Group Delay (inaudible).Black Line = 20 Hz Ported Group Delay Curve.Simply put, if you want to most room-energizing, gut-punching, floor-trembling cinematic experience possible, a ported subwoofer will deliver greater dynamic output at the lowest frequencies vs. This makes the larger ported SVS subs a natural choice for system applications with larger rooms (where less room gain is present) and reference-level playback levels, particularly on demanding Blu-ray action and sci-fi movies with demanding LFE tracks. The result is 2-4X more peak dynamic output in the 18-36 Hz octave as compared to a sealed subwoofer in the same family/price range. A larger enclosure also greatly enhances system efficiency in the deeper octaves, with no need for additional EQ boost to achieve naturally deep bass extension. In a ported subwoofer design, a relatively large enclosure size is required in order to achieve both a deep system tuning frequency and sufficient port area to minimize chuffing artifacts (aka port noise) at high drive levels. Size Matters - No Replacement for Displacement
![speaker enclosure design ported speaker enclosure design ported](https://i.pinimg.com/474x/57/ba/c1/57bac1e0e0c4e01ea58a6a4604cc9df8.jpg)
These characteristics make the sealed subwoofer a natural choice for critical music applications and are typically described by enthusiasts as sounding tighter and more articulate or musical, with less perceived overhang. Sealed cabinet subwoofers are generally more accurate in frequency response and better at rendering instrumentals in a convincing way. Best for Critical Music ApplicationsĪ properly designed sealed subwoofer will typically exhibit less phase rotation, lower group delay, and reduced ringing in the time domain. The strengths of each subwoofer type are discussed below, along with the recommended applications and listening environments which will result in optimal performance. At the risk of sounding ambiguous, the answer is ‘it depends’.
![speaker enclosure design ported speaker enclosure design ported](https://fiverr-res.cloudinary.com/t_main1,q_auto,f_auto/gigs/874648/original/samplebox1.jpg)
Add in a few die-hard myths and generalizations, and it’s no surprise this is one of the most common questions asked of the SVS Sound Experts team. Which type of subwoofer cabinet design is better – sealed or ported? An evergreen discussion topic on the home audio forums and blogs, there is no shortage of opinions on the subject. SVS SoundPath RCA Audio Interconnect Cable SoundPath Tri-Band Wireless Audio Adapter