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I want to start building enclosures in order to get better at it for when i start getting more serious and spending more money into car audio. Whats a good way to start? Any books/videos anyone would reccomend to help me get started? I mostly want to build ported enclosures. I realize that's more complicated than a sealed enclosure so if i get ported down i'll be fine. The thing that confuses me for the most part is tuning the box in relation to port size ect. Anything you guys can throw at me would be appreciated.

Thanks

You need a program to properly calculate the port size. These programs are not cheap. The particular program Detroit Bass uses is called TERM-PRO and cost $350.

So much can go wrong if you do not properly calcualte the box, including permanent damage to the sub. Start with sealed enclosures. Built tons of them getting a knack for precise cuts, drilling w/o splitting, and sealing it air tight. After you built tons of sealed, then consider ported enclosures.

yeah me and my brother just built my box (sealed) and he works with that kind of stuff everyday so he zoomed thruogh it but i saw like 10things i wouldve messed up on if i had done it myself, just silly things i wouldnt have thought to do or wouldve missed...so i can see why justin would say build lots and lots and lots.

Calculating port tuning is a fairly simple exercise, and doesn't really require any overly complex program. If you want accurate high power modeling though, you certainly won't get it for free.

Very few box programs actually account for changes in BL, Cms, and Le as excursion and heat increase.

Learning how to work with the material you plan to build the enclosure with, as well as the tools involved, is obviously one of the key steps.