# 6x9" for home use : ported vs sealed?



## platinumblue (Dec 20, 2012)

Hi there!

I got hold of a pair of 6x9" speakers a few days ago and now I plan on putting them into boxes to be used in my study. :laugh:

Which type of enclosure should I be looking at? Usually the comments are pretty mixed when it comes to ported vs sealed, and especially for these type of speakers. I realise that 6x9" aren't really for home use but hey, I got them really cheap, have everything else set-up, just need a few enclosure designs.

For those of you who like detail:
* 2X 6x9" VR3 (Virtual Reality Sound Labs) RS900 3-way speakers
* Polypropylene sprayed paper cones
* 20oz Magnets +-10%
* Foam rubber surrounds
* 400 Watts Instantaneous Peak power
* 80 Watts RMS
* Mylar Midrange speakers/tweeters
* 50Hz-20,000Hz

* StarSound 2x200 Watt Amp Built-in Xover
* PC acting as EQ/tuner
* 2x Computer desktop stereo speakers

Goal: To get as much bass out of them as possible , and clean all round sound.
Again, 6x9" are primarily used for rear fill in a car, and for midbass. But I just want to see how I can get the most out of these guys in a home setup. When I bought them (for roughly $11 brand new sealed in a box), I didn't actually think about enclosures. My mind was kinda made up with "pretty big sealed boxes and see how it goes".

When I started doing some research, I read about some folks putting them into ported boxes, tall "tower" boxes etc etc. Sealed boxes are pretty easy but some dimensions would be nice from you guys. Ported boxes I think are pretty tough to build due to the high qts of the speakers and no idea what their T/S parameters are. I read ported boxed 6x9"s can reach somewhat lower frequencies but how low should one go, or try to go? 40hz?

So far I'm thinking sealed enclosure : H 12" W 10" L 12"

Any ideas??

Thanx for reading!


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## sqshoestring (Jun 19, 2007)

Best bet is find some similar IB (high qts) 8s and model then build a box that size. You can try to port but box will be large. They will not work that well unless even a sealed is fairly large I would guess over 1cf at minimum. You might be better off to get a cheaper large DVC sub and build a BP box, then run the 6x9 parallel with it. I did that with some bookshelf speakers for my PC that had a 2x30 home receiver hooked to it, it worked much better than I suspected with a single dvc 10 in it and around 2cf or something. It was big but under the desk anyway, and had some serious bass.


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## platinumblue (Dec 20, 2012)

Thanx for the reply!

I hear you. It would be much better going with at least an 8" properly tuned for the amount of "bass-iness" I want.

Suddenly 1CuFt boxes sound smallish for the 6x9" hehe

If you don't mind please look at the attached pics for some other ideas... As you can see from the tower box idea, I made the port at the bottom. Where should I put it? I have zero experience with porting.

And also, polyfill? I've never used it before. If I have say a 1CuFt box, and added polyfill stapled to the inside walls, how much extra "volume" does one look at? Just a ballpark figure.

Thanx!


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## Maylar (Dec 6, 2012)

FWIW:

I once asked Infinity for the recommended box size with their Reference series 6X9 and the told me 0.2 cu ft. sealed.


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## platinumblue (Dec 20, 2012)

Maylar said:


> FWIW:
> 
> I once asked Infinity for the recommended box size with their Reference series 6X9 and the told me 0.2 cu ft. sealed.


Thanx man. It seems a bit small tho.. but very interesting that they recommend that.

Maybe I should just build a 1 CuFt sealed enclosure and spare everyone a headache


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