Ported vs. sealed (here we go again)

From the Cat Dragged in LST thread: Hi Jerry, What great replies! First of all, I, too, didn't realize that speaker companies who built vented enclosures paid too much attention to small air leaks; however, I can see where it could give a problem. I think what Steve is referring to regarding the "their lower 3dB down points" is the lower fc of many vented designs, but the 24 dB/octave rolloff below resonance in vented vs. the 12 dB/octave in acoustic-suspension designs. Thus the ven

I'd written about this topic in great length (over 1500 words--about four pages) back in 2002. I guess it's time to summarize that post again now, so here goes. >Yes, the “tuning frequency” of a correctly-designed vented speaker with a woofer of appropriate T-S parameters will allow it to reach a lower -3dB point for a given enclosure size compared to a sealed speaker of the same size. In the early 90’s timeframe, for instance, the PSB Alpha was reaching, say, -3dB in the low 50’s H