sub box just exploded, need to make new one

Download a copy of WinISD. You'll be able to play around with sealed/ported and size of box to determine what will be best. Read the getting started guide in help and make sure you follow the suggested procedure for entering new driver data.

I don't own a THT, nor have I heard one, but pretty much all of the front loaded horns I have heard (all commercial options) have sounded great. I've said for years that my favorite alignment for music is a horn and if I could fit the huge enclosure, I would.

I vote for the THT I have one

Hmm, sealed vs ported... What if you could get the best of both worlds? A 4th order bandpass sounds like a good idea for you, especially given the lowish sensitivity of that subwoofer. I'll try and model one for you, i'll see if it does good. With some subs a bandpass box ends up unpractically large and ported is better, while some other fit it like a glove. I'll take a look tomorrow.

I haven't built any horns so i won't comment on that, but Bill Fitzmaurice will be able to tell you if your speaker will work in a THT, he designed it after all.

Well the main attribute of horns is efficiency, so the THT will be louder than your sub in any conventional config. The bandpass box will get louder than a ported one if that's what you want - but at the expense of frequency response. Poorly designed bandpass boxes are known as "one note wonders" - meaning they'll hit one note VERY LOUD and suck at everything else.

But a properly designed bandpass will sound better than its ported equivalent (due to better control of the speaker suspension), and IMO their main advantage is that the box acts as an acoustic filter - meaning no lowpass nor highpass filter needed. The sealed part is what does away with the highpass (subsonic) filter, the fact that the speaker is completely inside the box is what does away with the lowpass.

Anyway, the main thing you should be careful about when building a bandpass box (except carefully respecting the measurements of course) is make triple sure that there are no leaks. Since all output from the bandpass box comes from the port, air will try to escape from everywhere and make lots of annoying whistling noises if it finds another way out.

Edit: I just sim'd it a little and a bandpass box doesn't suit it too well. You'll get the same SPL as ported, and poorer frequency response. For a ported box, 100 liters (3.5 cf) tuned to 22Hz would be nice, -3dB point would be 20Hz. For music this will require no highpass filter, but for movies it does. Trouble is, such a low tuning requires a lotta port area if you don't want it to chuff. And with a lotta port area comes a lotta port length... I think that you should try to build a slot port inside the box rather than bending lengths of pipe to fit inside the box (been there, done that, not fun). Can you give me at least one fixed dimension for the box? I'll try and think where the port would go.

Can you describe why it sounded terrible at some frequencies? This is purely speculation but I'm willing to bet it was a generic ported box that didnt have the right volume ports which made it chuff amongst other things. You may be able to build a better designed ported box and get the deep extension without the port noise. Depending on where you'll be using it you may like the sound of sealed too. WinISD will definately help you figure it out.

I sim'd a sealed box too and it doesn't look too good unless you have LOTS of room gain (ie: a large room with little furniture). A sealed box would do fine in a car, but for home use ported is definitely the way to go with that sub.

First things first--put that thing back together so you can blow it up again.
Just make sure you post the video for it this time.
You'll be an instant legend around here.
Forget dynamite. I want to blow something up with a subwoofer!

The port volume on the old box was wrong for that driver at the frequencies you played it at. Its not an uncommon problem. If you decide to build a new ported enclosure its fairly simple to plan out so you dont have the same problem.

No, go with the THT. Or better yet go with the smaller one due to the small room size...http://billfitzmaurice.net/T18.html

If you're going to sell the sub you have to fund the THT go for it. If you're not you might as well build a new box for it and see how you like it. Then you can build a THT and compare.


Then in 3 years you'll have a room full of speakers that you keep telling yourself you need to build just one more of to be happy.