No. Research and Development of a good subwoofer design is the most expensive part. Instruments, acoustic chambers, extensive testing and retesting different combinations of materials, dimensions, drivers, filters\crossovers, passive radiators vs. porting, sealed designs, etc. Some manufacturers have years, if not decades of research and development in their components.
Like I said, most people don't appreciate what it takes to build a quality subwoofer.
West, I missed this.
I think you completely missed where I was going.
And truethfully, math can give us the "perfect design" for any given aplication.
Comercial designs are made to do things in this order, be light weight and small. Secondly to look good, or have some gimic, draw, atraction... I'm not discrediting this, it may work.. it's the truth though... then finaly sound reproduction.
Subs are best in Huge enclosures.... with the right tune. To be even more finicy about it... well, they can't even start taking room responce into account, you can if you DIY(99% i would say don't though)
The lowest notes on a pipe organ acheive this task by being the size they are.....
R and D only comes into play when you have to make shortcuts... when you want to make something small enough and light enough you can ship it out.
R and D is based in marketing.
Again, I am not trashing this, I am just saying you can get much better sound for many less dollars DIY. And with subs, you deal with a much much much more narrow Hz range than a loudspeaker.. and the design for "perfect" reproduction is much harder to deal with.