Subwoofer Enclosures

In this article I will reveal the main reason why we use an enclosure to put a subwoofer in. I will also make some mysteries clear about enclosures.

The first thing I want to start talk about is phase cancelation, this is a nightmare to deal with. With a subwoofer we expect low frequencies to be created, the thing about low frequencies is that this frequency is omni-directional. This mean the frequency don't just go in the direction you point the subwoofer it will go everywhere.

The reason we put the subwoofer in an enclosure is because if you don't use an enclosure you will hear no bass frequency. The reason for this is phase cancelation between the front and the back of the subwoofer speaker, the sub woofer sound will bend around the speaker, these sub frequencies have a large sound wave. This will not happen with high frequency because high frequencies are very directional.

You can also prevent this phase cancelation from happening by placing the subwoofer in a baffle. A baffle is pies of wood or any flat surface. The bigger you make this baffle the better you will prevent phase cancellation from happening, if you go big enough you can stop it completely.

This is the actual reason why we use an enclosure, but it is not the only reason. The enclosure is also used to reinforce those low frequencies. We do this by placing a port in the enclosure, this will use the energy generated inside the box to reinforce the sound at the front of the speaker.