I know there is plenty of praise for the Fathom and upcoming Gotham subs from JL.

In the past, I was an installer for car audio products, and our best line was JL. They offered high quality solutions for all ends of the spectrum. They also provided all of the information necessary for building nearly any type of enclosure for a given situation.

I would find myself discussing the pros/cons of sealed vs. ported with the customer. Some would prefer the sound of sealed.... others loved ported after hearing a short demonstration using both variants. The sub lines ranged from W0s to W6s at the time when I was doing this type of work.

Regardless,
there were many needs by different customers wanting that "JL" sound. The solutions were big/small, ported/sealed, single/multi driver, etc....

The current offering from JL is a high-powered sealed sub which delivers big from a small package... but I think it leaves out a large group of potential customers for JL. Maybe they don't have the capacity, or they do not want anything but a small niche in Home Audio, but I know they have the engineering expertise to create a broader range of products.

I personally had configurations of 3 12W6s ported, 3 10w6s ported, 3 10w6s sealed, 1 12w1 sealed, 1 12w1 ported. Each had their benefit and weakness relative to other designs, but I was left with a great appreciation for the quality JL produced.

I think that many would be willing to make some compromises from the Fathom sub, if they were able to meet their budget and still get that "JL" sound.

I have wondered about this too. If the same driver is used in a ported box, will it jump out of it's skin because of compliance not offered due to not being sealed? I guess if it were ported, you may not need that powerful of an amp either.
I like the sound of both ported and sealed and at times prefer one over the other depending on the type of source material.

You never know what the future will bring... :)

As AVSrebel stated, we certainly have experience with and understanding of ported systems.

Best regards,

Manville Smith
JL Audio, Inc.

as in say ported W6v2 w/500 watts. yum

JL has vented designs for the the w6v2 and w7s, just look at their HO boxes. There are also several slot ported designs for single and dual woofers. I'm sure it'll only be a matter of time before we see some vented w7 home sub. I've built a single w7 10" vented and two 13w7s vented. The 10" box was pretty small and the two 13's said hello to high 150s. I'm not sure what the tuning frequecys were but probably to high for home theater.

You never know what the future will bring... :)

As AVSrebel stated, we certainly have experience with and understanding of ported systems.

Best regards,

Manville Smith
JL Audio, Inc.

So, JL is working with some prototypes now :D

They'll have an interesting time when (if) they bring ported boxes into the fray. SVS, HSU, etc... all have this area covered pretty well. It would be interesting to see what JL does to improve their chances.

JL has vented designs for the the w6v2 and w7s, just look at their HO boxes. There are also several slot ported designs for single and dual woofers. I'm sure it'll only be a matter of time before we see some vented w7 home sub. I've built a single w7 10" vented and two 13w7s vented. The 10" box was pretty small and the two 13's said hello to high 150s. I'm not sure what the tuning frequecys were but probably to high for home theater.

Usually getting high SPL in car audio is at odds with a lower tuning frequency. Matching the car's resonance with the tuning frequency usually yields the most SPL.... generally around 50-60 Hz (not a musical system IMO). The boxes I made for myself had tuning points of 20-22 Hz. I gave up a some on higher SPL marks, but the quality and low end was quite incredible... My drivers weren't unloading too much below the tuning point.... at least they never showed signs of stress even with lower frequencies. Though, I did get a bit of port noise at times. I would've gone with bigger ports to stop this, but it kills so much of the internal volume as you go up in diameter, and the ports require much longer lengths as their diameter increases too.