Hi Trevor,

Choosing between a ported or sealed box is usually a matter of personal preference, as both will offer advantages and disadvantages. I can tell you that the Energy rep that I spoke to recommends using their subwoofers in a sealed box, however that's not to say you should rule out a ported box. I'll go over some of the advantages and disadvantages of each to help you make a decision.

While a sealed box will usually take up less room in your trunk, it will not have as much overall output as a ported box will. That's not necessarily a bad thing - not everyone wants or needs a lot of bass. The advantage to a sealed box is that its natural frequency response will be much flatter than that of a ported box, which translates into better sound quality. Ported boxes are tuned to a certain frequency, so there will be more output at and around that frequency. Again, not necessarily a bad thing, but the overall frequency response of a portd box will not be as smooth as the sealed box.

Another advantage to a sealed box is that the trapped air behind the subwoofer cone acts a cushion to restrict cone movement. This means that the likeliness of the sub over-excurting (moving in and out too far) is slim to none. That cushion of air also helps with transient response, which is basically the ability of the sub/box combo to react quickly to the input signal. This means heavy-hitting instruments like a kick drum will sound more natural and have more impact. A ported box suffers from something called group delay, which denotes the time it takes for the port in the box to react to the movement of the subwoofer. In most cases this effect is tolerable, and doesn't affect sound quality too much unless the box is excessively large.

To sum in up in short, a ported box will be louder, but a sealed box will sound better. Ideally, for a subwoofer like the Energy ENC10 or ENC12 I would recommend a custom-built enclosure. You can talk to an installer at your local Future Shop for more details, but I can tell you that a custom box that is built and tuned properly for your subwoofer will make all the difference. This is especially important when considering a ported box. While the prefab models we carry are built well, the ported enclosures aren't tuned for any specific subwoofer. Since every sub is built differently, it's pretty much impossible to build a box that is optimal for every one of them. For this reason, I think a custom-built sealed enclosure would be your best bet.

I hope this information was helpful! Feel free to ask me any more questions in this thread, or via PM. Take care!



Brandon Insley
Mobile Install Lead Technician
Future Shop Store #620
Brantford, Ontario