[TomekZ]

Having spent years of time with single wide/full band drivers in back horns, transmission lines, open baffle and ported boxes, I put a pair of Merril DCA-4 in a SEALED BOX. To my surprise, I never heard a more true single driver sound. Bass, to my ears, helped by holes in the box, always seems to become a two-way (or maybe 1 & 1/2 way) speaker.

[skite30]

What size box are you using.

[pjanda1]

I like sealed alignments in small rooms that provide plenty of room gain.  The challenge is that most fullrange drivers are designed with specs to compliment more complicated enclosures.  Many of the smaller drivers, even if they have reasonably high Q's (less popular now, but I'm thinking of some vintage units), still can't get below 100hz.  And of course, all of them either need to be against room boundaries or have some BSC if not to sound bass light (though many like that forward midrange).   A sealed box will provide greater excursion control, and thus less distortion than a vented box.  I also like sealed +sub systems.  Either a single sub with a speaker that will get down low enough or dual subs like the Paul Joppa S.E.X.y speaker approach.

Paul
www.wildburroaudio.com

[JLM]

A few vendors have used the aperiodic design.  I had Fried Model B (small two way standmounts) that I followed the factory recommended mods with new drivers and two 0.5 inch holes in the front.  They were good before and better afterwards.

The aperiodic design should be a good compromise between sealed (where the back pressure would smear the sound via the acoustically semi-transluscent driver cone) and ported (where you hear the lower frequency back waves).

[konut]

A few vendors have used the aperiodic design.

+1!

The Omega Aperiodic 8s(Visaton B200 driver), long discontinued, are quite good, especially with a correction circuit.

[TomekZ]

Oh...the Merril drivers are in a shoe box sized cabinet. They work in this sized box. My room is not much bigger than a shoe box either.

The only cabinet that does not much re-project sound through the driver is an open baffle. The bass' back wave in a sealed box, is it any more smeared than in any other box. The most articulated bass, but weak in amplitude is in an open baffle. It is amazing how acoustic music's low frequencies, say symphonic, sounds so very different in different hall venues, as different as any other frequency--but a concert in the park has the least bass energy.

[Poindexter]

I'm sorry, I must disagree to a certain extent.  Sealed box loads can sound very clear, it's true; but when used fullrange, they (at least all I've heard) have a 'stuffy nose' coloration that eventually disqualifies them.  The very best 'sealed box' alignments are those that use very large sealed boxes -- open and infinite baffle loads.  These have their own problems, it's true, but I find them substantially more solvable.

YMMV, and all that dissing stuff,

Poinz
AudioTropic

[Duke]

Sealed box loads can sound very clear, it's true; but when used fullrange, they (at least all I've heard) have a 'stuffy nose' coloration that eventually disqualifies them. 

I once conducted several blind listening tests comparing otherwise virtually identical sealed and vented boxes, and having my listeners focus on human voice reproduction.  Preference for the vented box was unanimous, which was not what I expected.  I later learned ways to make a sealed box sound less like a box, but a vented box starts out with an advantage in my opinion.

[jimdgoulding]

I like sealed alignments in small rooms that provide plenty of room gain.  The challenge is that most fullrange drivers are designed with specs to compliment more complicated enclosures.  Many of the smaller drivers, even if they have reasonably high Q's (less popular now, but I'm thinking of some vintage units), still can't get below 100hz.  And of course, all of them either need to be against room boundaries or have some BSC if not to sound bass light (though many like that forward midrange).   A sealed box will provide greater excursion control, and thus less distortion than a vented box.  I also like sealed +sub systems.  Either a single sub with a speaker that will get down low enough or dual subs like the Paul Joppa S.E.X.y speaker approach.

Paul
www.wildburroaudio.com

Gotta say, new friend, that I luv your heart warming website. 

[Raiderone]

Yeah, sealed can sound more pure or coherent, after all you are not hearing anything euphonic if you can describe out of phase port resonance as such.  But, sealed can sound congested if overdriven or dead if underpowered with some low powered SET, which is usually the case.