With 1400 watts at hand couldn't I just EQ it to my liking/ drive the piss out of it? I can see how it could be slightly tame but if the problem is centered around 'dryness' couldn't a boost here and there make it significantly better? I did the calculation and my room is 1600 cf.
First of all you may well like the sub the way it is.
However you need to look at my
plots. The power rating of the driver is the overall power rating. Now look at the electrical power rating, you will see that as with all drivers the power the driver can handle is limited in the bass. You will see that the power the driver can handle becomes progressively limited below 35 Hz.
Now look at the cone displacement graph. You will note that at 20 Hz without EQ the cone displacement is already 20 mm out of a max of 28 mm, at full power at that frequency. So you can't Eq the piss out of it without getting to the non linear range, and or destroying the driver. So in order to Eq the sub correctly to achieve flat response you have to reduce the average level. Note the
smaller box has a cone displacement of 14 mm at 20 Hz without Eq, which leaves 50% of the driver xmax for Eq. Your sub by the way has very good performance for a sealed sub. Sealed subs by their nature are inefficient because the entire driver rear radiation has to be absorbed. Only the front of the cone is available to generate spl.
The next issue is Qtc. Now most speaker systems are resonant. A reflex enclosure is a combination of driver and box resonance designed to maximize spl. Sealed speakers are also resonant to a degree, because the driver is a spring and so is the air trapped in the box.
Now Q is the quality of the resonance. In essence that it means the width of the resonant peak. The lower the Q the narrower the base of the peak. When a resonant peak is narrow enough the ear does not perceive it as resonance. For instance very narrow band cabinet resonances are not audible. It is generally accepted that a Q of 0.5 is essentially non resonant as far as human perception is concerned. However a lot of listeners seem to like their bass embellished by a little resonance, and most speakers have a range of Qtc between 0.7 and 1.0. In my view that is not natural reproduction. I prefer non resonant reproduction with a Q of around O.5. This can not be achieved with a Qb4 ported enclosure.
Now you can not change Q, or its auditory perception with Eq.
So it may be you will like your sub with a Q around 0.5. In my view that gives accurate bass reproduction. However don't be surprised if it sounds different from what you are used to, especially if you are used to listening to ported speakers.
Of the designs that can be aligned for low Q, they include sealed, band pass (especially second order), IB, open baffle and aperiodically damped transmission lines, with second order roll off.
IBs are not practical for most. Sealed and open baffle enclosures have high turnover points with high F3. They require drivers with a large xmax and will require equalization in the last octave and often into the second octave.
Transmission lines can achieve essentially non resonant reproduction with efficiencies comparable to ported designs. They utilize the rear cone radiation and have significant port output, and over a greater frequency range without peaking than the port of a Qb4 reflex.
So in essence you have to decide how you take your poison.
