Cabinet size vs. port displacement
When calculating port parameters, is the volume of the port subtracted from the calculated size, or is it usually compensated for in the design? For instance, in a particular 3.5 cu.ft. design I'm working on, the optimum port size to avoid turbulance works out to .75 cu.ft. port displacement volume in this case. Does the 3.5 cu.ft. size usually take that into account, or should the cabinet size be increased to 4.25 cu.ft. for the same performance? The programs I'm using are not really clear on this point.
It seems like it should already be compensated for, or else you'd constantly have to recalculate values to get a final refinement. It's just that .75 cu.ft. is a pretty big chunk of displacement out of 3.5 cu.ft., so I'm a little concerned...
Thanks for any info - John.
Re: Cabinet size vs. port displacement
My last vented system was 8.99 cubic feet gross physical volume. The driver, ports, and bracing took up 1.29 cubic feet so the net physical volume was 7.70 cubic feet. The dual 6" diameter ports each had 13.25" ducts tuning the volume to 31.35 Hz. That means the actual effective volume of the system was 7.98 cubic feet (counting system losses). Lining the inside with good old 2" thick Owens Corning fiberglass dropped the tuning to 29.86 Hz which equates to an actual effective volume of 8.79 cubic feet - just 0.2 cubic feet shy of gross and also happens to be the volume JBL says is displaced by the 2242/2245. The ducted ports are quite large for this system so I had to use 2" instead of 1" fiberglass to compensate.
You may notice that the default loss value in WinISD is something like 7. Better JBL systems measure around 10 to 12. These particular 8.99 cubic foot boxes I built measured just over 14, so "typically" the effective volume with a loss of 7 would have ended up with a higher effective volume resulting in an even lower tuning frequency. Enclosures that measure total losses around 3 are considered junk. In other words, how well you build the box will also have an effect. Keep in mind that Vb can vary by up to 20% without detracting from performance whereas Fb can vary by up to only 10% without detracting from performance.
real vs. imagined problems; JBL enclosure guide
Somewhere on JBLPRO site there is a list of boxes for popular drivers, along with a few good rules of thumb. one of these R-O-T states that (on larger boxes) you can forget about deducting bracing, driver, and (within reasonable size limits) port volume deductions if you insulate the box on all sides with 2" of fiberglass. It "adds virtual volume to the box", as they say. Just keep it well clear of the ports (staple it back and/or cover it with gause to hold it away), and don't stretch it tightly over the backs of the woofers.
If still unsure, make your port a little on the long side-you can always shorten it. If you know what to expect from your port dimensions and length, you can measure the Fb of the finished product and mathematically figure out what size your box is actually behaving as. If you want to really get cranky about it, you can add (or subtract) loosely stuffed or mounted fiberglass in the cabinet to further tweak the effective net volume of the box. you can easily add 20% "virtual" box volume this way to make the T/S parameters get right in a box that is too small. In theory, you can add 40%. In theory.
But the more important criteria is Fb, once you get pretty close to the ideal volume.
FOUND- JBL Enclosure Guide
Look what I just found in a dark corner of C:http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/i...es/biggrin.gif
Well, dammit! I can't paste a .pdf to this, so I am suddenly compelled to go to JBL's site and seek out the link-
Try: http://www.jblpro.com/pub/manuals/enclgde.pdf