Evaluate Woofer in Sealed or Vented Enclosure
Andy Lewis rev 7/18/2011
This is the tool which I always wished had been available years ago. I have never seen anything like this anywhere.
As you search through your favorite catalog of woofers, it can be daunting to see their parameters listed in a description, and to then get a good idea of what a specific driver will do in the real world, in a real vented or sealed enclosure. When I was younger, I got very good at evaluating them using Don Keele's pocket calculator method, which is quite good, but not complete, in that you can never get a sense of the actual response curve, just the basic limitations of a woofer in a specific box.
Not so with the model I present here.
This model allows you to simply enter the three main woofer parameters, fs, Qts, and Vas. Then, simply enter the enclosure volume Vb, to see what the woofer will do in a specific sealed system. Next, add your port or vent of choice, by simply entering a tuning frequency fb in the appropriate cell. You can then see how the driver will perform in a vented enclosure. That's all there is to it!
The spreadsheet is very intuitive, powerful, and easy to use. You can model any sealed or vented system you can imagine for any woofer that you wish to evaluate. Get our your favorite speaker catalog, and give it a try.
Spreadsheet to Evaluate any Woofer in Sealed or Vented Enclosure