Car Bandpass Subwoofer Boxes

For a good portion of the 80s and 90s, car bandpass subwoofer enclosers were the sub-box of choice for those looking to put some bass in their trunk. Why? Well, bandpass subwoofer enclosures can add anywhere from three to six DBs of gain to the output of a driver! This added gain in SPL came at a cost, which is size! Despite that, they still became the favorite among car audio bass heads at a time when both amp and subwoofer technology was still in its infant state. There are many kinds of bandpass subwoofer enclosures, but the 4^th order has always excelled in popularity. The 4^th order bandpass enclosure consists of two chambers. A sealed chamber controls its low-end cut-off frequency, and a ported chamber controls the upper-end cut-off frequency. The range between these two is the bandpass frequency of the subwoofer enclosure. So, why do you rarely see bandpass enclosures in cars anymore? The short answer to that is technology, today’s class D amplifier, and high-performance subs made from exotic materials have rendered the large bandpass enclosures absolute. However, experienced installers and old-school fans still seek performance advantages over sealed and bass reflex enclosures.