Need help designing enclosure for RE8 DVC

This all came about because of this. I decided that I might as well do it right. Also, it gives me an excuse to build something.

I’m somewhat of a neophyte when it comes to subwoofer enclosure design so I thought that I’d consult the experts before I started any fabrication. I’ve decided to build an enclosure for a Resonant Engineering RE8, 8”, DVC sub. I’ll wire the two coils in parallel and feed them to a Fosgate 301M monoblock amp.

What I need to know is whether I should be building a sealed or ported box for the sub. My ears probably wouldn’t know the difference between an enclosure designed for sq or spl –or would they? My vehicle is a ’90 Honda Civic hatchback. I’ve played around with WinISD, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me right now.

Any help getting me pointed in the right direction is appreciated.

The specs for the RE8 are pictured below:

I'm not a box builder but i've taken a resonant engineering 8'' before and put it into a 1.75 cubic foot box ported to 25 Hz (really low) and it cranked running only 100 W clean into it. I had it wired up to 2 ohms (its a DVC4 ohm) and running off of a Nakamichi amplifier (PA4001 i believe it was) and boy it was a serious sub for  a little car. Use at least 5/8'' MDF, usually i use like 3/4'' and it comes out sounding just right. Good luck

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"I don't play games. I play Nakamichi and that for real yo" - Probably some japanese kid said this in the early 80's trying to sell stereo out of his trunk lol.

GSR , What kind of sound goal are you looking for? Most people can tell a difference in SQ and SPL. Not all but most. Im not an expert either by any means but from what I can read in the specs you provided , that looks like a decent Sound Quality sub. From my experience , SQ subs usually sound better in a sealed enclosure. SPL subs usually work best in a ported or vented enclosure. An 8" sub isnt going to give you alot of SPL anyway.

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I agree, but RE is alot like Adire (respectively) so i would probably leave it in a sealed enclosure if SQ is your goal. Rushman is right, you won't be getting a lot of SPL out of that 8'' anyways. If you want more SPL, upgrade to 10 or 12 inch subs. Good luck with that!

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"I don't play games. I play Nakamichi and that for real yo" - Probably some japanese kid said this in the early 80's trying to sell stereo out of his trunk lol.

I would vent that 8" sub.  You would get some really low bass extension and a flat frequency response with an enclosure net of .583 ft^3 with a round port 2" X 21".  Figure the displacement of the port and the driver and the box grows bigger.  That's absolute minimum size for that port, but getting any bigger really increases the length.  With that, the box will be tuned to 25.4 Hz. and a very nice sub.  A sealed enclosure would give you much less deep bass with that sub, and no flatter of a response.

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Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

I said that in my first response, if you go ported/vented go to around 25 Hz. Look above if you missed it.

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"I don't play games. I play Nakamichi and that for real yo" - Probably some japanese kid said this in the early 80's trying to sell stereo out of his trunk lol.

What, so that means I can't answer?

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Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

lol, who said that? Of course you can answer! :)

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"I don't play games. I play Nakamichi and that for real yo" - Probably some japanese kid said this in the early 80's trying to sell stereo out of his trunk lol.

lol, I saw your post.  But I checked it out with WinISD and the box size is much smaller for flat response.  Looks like a 1.75 gives a hell of a peak at resonance then dips down too low at sub frequencies.

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Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

Thanks, i didn't know that!

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"I don't play games. I play Nakamichi and that for real yo" - Probably some japanese kid said this in the early 80's trying to sell stereo out of his trunk lol.

So it looks like a ported enclosure is the way to go.
I'm thinking of building an enclosure that hugs the side of the trunk to save space and to maintain access to the spare tire if necessary. Will placing the port on a side of the box that is perpendicular to the face of the sub change how it responds?

It should be okay that way, but I would try to figure out a way to get the vent opening to the face of the sub if it were me.  You would need a port length that is longer than any individual side of the box, so bending the tube is the way to go with this one.  PVC pipe with an elbow.

BTW, when you punch in the numbers of your sub into WinISD, the Xmax you listed in this post is for one-way, while the input the program wants is peak....so double the 12 and put in 24mm.  I punched the specs (leave Qts out and let the program calculate it) in for your sub, and let the program figure out the best scenario (just click through the dialog boxes).  The only thing I played with was port opening size, because you can see what a long port you would have with a bigger opening.  Your sub gets a very nice graph characteristic.

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Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.