Making the Right Choice | Build or Buy A Subwoofer Enclosure

When look­ing to beef up your car’s sys­tem, end­less research is spent on the right ampli­fier and sub­woofer. The next step is find­ing a speaker enclo­sure. This catches peo­ple by sur­prise regard­ing the tech­ni­cal details and end­less options, but the first basic ques­tion is if you should build or buy one.

So what’s the right choice for you? Buy­ing a pre-made speaker enclo­sure or mak­ing it your­self? Let’s find out.

Expe­ri­ence
Expe­ri­ence and enthu­si­asm are a pow­er­ful com­bi­na­tion. If you’ve built stuff before or like mak­ing things and also under­stand the sweet sci­ence behind the sound, then mak­ing a box would be the right choice. You’ll take pride in mak­ing some­thing your­self and know how you want it to sound. You can also cus­tomize it, mak­ing it unique, reflect­ing your per­son­al­ity and your car’s style. If you’re short on being a handy man, then your best bet is to buy your own. Don’t spend end­less hours mak­ing some­thing you’re not qual­i­fied to take on. Be hon­est about your skills. A pre-made enclo­sure will also look pro­fes­sional.

Time is Money
Another fac­tor to con­sider is your bud­get. After spend­ing good money on an ampli­fier and sub­woofer, do you have enough left to buy a box? The mate­ri­als needed to make a basic, sin­gle sub­woofer sealed box should run about $75 and a pre-made about $125. Another fac­tor is if you have the time and energy. Do you have free time after a work day or maybe turn it into a week­end project? Money, time and energy are always at a pre­mium, so def­i­nitely think this over.

Space Is Lim­ited
How much junk you get in your trunk depends on cargo space. If you have enough room for a con­ven­tional box, then you should be able to find the right pre-made box. If you have a small trunk or an odd design to deal with, then maybe you need to check into mak­ing your own. Keep in mind, though, some speaker enclo­sure design­ers can cre­ate a cus­tom fit.

Show­ing Your True Col­ors
If you have your car cus­tomized, reflect­ing your style and per­son­al­ity, then you might also want to cus­tomize your box. It’ll com­pli­ment your car, mak­ing the look unique and all your own. How­ever, keep in mind the skills and time as men­tioned before. Also, if you have to make your own enclo­sure due to siz­ing issues, then add some fin­ish­ing touches. Since you’re already mak­ing the box, give it your per­sonal stamp of approval.

Build Easy
We’ve men­tioned before the dif­fer­ent types of speaker boxes and their designs. If you’re mak­ing your own box, I’d rec­om­mend you build a sealed box since it’s the eas­i­est box to make. There are less mate­ri­als, less cut­ting, less math and less headache. If you need a ported or band­pass box, then take a hard look at pre-made enclo­sures. Instead of toil­ing into the night, you’ll be cruis­ing instead.

These are the basic ques­tions on build­ing or buy­ing a speaker box. Everyone’s sit­u­a­tion is dif­fer­ent, so decide what is best for you. Focus on what you truly need.

There’s sev­eral guides on the inter­net on how to make your own box, but I’d rec­om­mend first look­ing over the rec­om­mended box specs that comes with your sub­woofer. This will also help start the process of mak­ing the right decision.

If you have tips on other things to con­sider or feed­back, feel free to let us know.