Im thinking of getting a JL w3 12 for my integra and I was wondering whats the diffrence in sound between a bandpass box and a regular sub enclosure? I searched but couldn't find anything!!!

 

Bandpass enclosures are hard to build properly and everything needs to be dead on and exacty from the enclosure volume of the primary and secondary enclosures to the port lengths. Sonically they are very boomy and efficient, but they sound like ***. They are hard on subwoofers because you cannot hear the speaker distort because some of the sound is filtered out though the port. It passes a narrow band of frequencoes through. Bandpass enclosures are known as "one-note wonders" because they tend to emphasize a particular frequency. They sound like crap, but yes, they are loud.

Go sealed. It's the easiest and the most sonically accurate.

 

Either way im going to have a local Stero store that does some good work do the box for me so the construction and easyness of it isn't going to be an issue. This also means that if anything goes wrong with it I can bring it back to them because it is there product.

My brother has one Bandpass JL 12w3 and I think it hits really hard for one 12. So thats why I was looking into them.
So since they sound like crap what would be a better sub set up to look into?

 

If it is a good shop, they'll admit that bandpasses are hard to build properly and they'll suggest a study, properly braced sealed enclosure instead. But if you just car about bumping and hitting hard, go with a bandpass. If I were to go with a bandpass, the only enclosure I'd use is the prefabricated ones by JL with their own driver. They build the speaker, know it specs and build the enclosure.

Just my 2 cents.

 

definitly. . .go with a good sealed enclosure. . .