I've been trying to get my head around infinite baffle designs recently. I've talked to a few shop owners and they tend to admit their lack of knowledge with infinite baffle setups due to not having performed many of those installs.
I also can't find anyone who can straight up tell me WHY they believe IB is either A) never going to be as loud as ported or B) a sub designed for vented just "wouldn't" work IB.
Here is what is going on in my head:
A woofer cannot tell if it is in sealed, vented, dual band-pass, free air, or even in mineral oil. It is simply a motor that does work on the moving parts (cone, spider, etc.)
The motor is working on the moving parts of the woofer while ALSO at the same time fighting whatever resistance the air provides (enter, the type of box, or fluid if you want to be super scientific, to establish HOW much that air provides resistance)
The motor also has to fight its own impedance depending on the Hz being played, which changes it's efficiency at that note. In this respect, the efficiency of the sub is constantly changing while playing music. This impedance can be affected by the resistance to movement the AIR has at that particular frequency as well.
These assumptions I have may be wrong, please pick them apart. Having an infinite baffle is more complicated than just xmax and cone area but how much more complicated... I can't really see it being that extraordinarily more, especially if you are using EQ to level out everything.
Why would you go vented or sealed instead of IB?
I also can't find anyone who can straight up tell me WHY they believe IB is either A) never going to be as loud as ported or B) a sub designed for vented just "wouldn't" work IB.
Here is what is going on in my head:
A woofer cannot tell if it is in sealed, vented, dual band-pass, free air, or even in mineral oil. It is simply a motor that does work on the moving parts (cone, spider, etc.)
The motor is working on the moving parts of the woofer while ALSO at the same time fighting whatever resistance the air provides (enter, the type of box, or fluid if you want to be super scientific, to establish HOW much that air provides resistance)
The motor also has to fight its own impedance depending on the Hz being played, which changes it's efficiency at that note. In this respect, the efficiency of the sub is constantly changing while playing music. This impedance can be affected by the resistance to movement the AIR has at that particular frequency as well.
These assumptions I have may be wrong, please pick them apart. Having an infinite baffle is more complicated than just xmax and cone area but how much more complicated... I can't really see it being that extraordinarily more, especially if you are using EQ to level out everything.
Why would you go vented or sealed instead of IB?