what will be the difference in a prefab box and a custom box?

[Joe X]

You can find it in many places but my point is that this is the kind of music that fails to play too well on smaller very high tuned boxes like most prefabs are.

If you can find a well made box that plays like you want, you should use that. Now if you place a 6 KW sub in one of those cheap boxes it will likely explode, then you know one reason you want a custom box built for.

[PortSideAudio]

If your going with a sealed box then a prefab may be ok. But if you are going with ported I would definitely do a custom box, not only do they almost always sound better, but you have the ability to design it exactly the way you want. Weather you are SPL junkie or a SQ junkie. Also you rarely ever make a custom box to recommended size, you can get far better quality then going with there specs. Also prefab boxes are usually tuned around 40hz which gets you loud but very unbalanced sound, so basically loud with bad SQ

[dolarbilz]

There are plenty of sealed prefabs out there that will perform just as good as something you can build (and several are inexpensive). I buy a lot of sealed prefabs for installs. Not worth my time if I can buy a nice carpeted box with a good connection terminal for $40.

There are also a lot of high quality ported prefabs out there (build and workmanship), but I have yet to see one that is actually tuned to what the manufacturer claims. Seems like they are always tuned higher than advertised. Never purchased a ported prefab for that reason.

I told the story on here a couple of years ago:

I bought the prefab box for my truck and the manufacturer had a sealed or ported version. Sealed is .7 cuft per sub. Asked them what the net volume was on the ported, they said .7 per sub. Asked if it was bigger, answer was no. Asked about the space the port took up. They let me know the port does not change the net volume. . .hmmmm.

But I will say the sealed box I purchased for under the rear seat of my crew cab chevy is very nice and was less than $100 shipped to my door.

For the price of under seat ones I'll buy for simple installs. sound good as well compared to the labor in trying g build one.

[jrlutor]

In a custom box you get to manipulate sound and see what curve you want, if you can play with the software. Prefab box you get what you get. Normally prefab is average box that mostly works with many speakers. Depending how well they are built effects sound greatly.

[timc31610]

Yep, all of that^ and the feeling of accomplishment when you fire up a box for the first time that you made with your own hands.