I'm a tiny bit worried that the driver seems out
of spec, but a sealed box is not that critical and so our results
can be off a bit and we will still build the right sealed box. Vented
boxes are far more critical and I might try breaking the woofer
in for a few days and retest if I were using a vented enclosure.
The next part of the process is to test in a sealed
box (or with added mass). This allows SW to approximate the acoustic
compliance of the driver (VAS).
So, I then tested the woofer on a sealed box. I had
one lying around from a prior NHT project so I lined the hole with
a closed-cell foam (insulating foam tape from home depot) and set
the woofer on the hole with weight to keep it stable. Here's the
picture (click for a bigger one):

For a box you want to use something with an internal
volume of about 1/2 the rated acoustic volume. This will bump the
Q substantially and provide a good second curve for the VAS
estimation. Make sure you use an empty box (no stuffing, yet) and
really really make sure the box is totally sealed and the gasket
is sealing well. If the box has air leaks or is not sealed well
you will see a second (smaller) impedance hump near the resonance
of the free air driver. Reseal and retest, if so.
After doing the impedance test (Measure / Impedance
in Sealed Box) I had the following two curves (sealed and free air).
The curve in black is the free air dataset, the curve in red is
the sealed dataset. Note that the resonance peak has moved higher
in frequency and lower in amplitude. Both are appropriate for this
test and so things look good. I don't like the impedance hump near
7Hz for the sealed test - this may indicate a tiny air leak, but
it's adequate for our purposes.

Now I evaluate the results and start prototyping the
enclosure.
See here to see using Added
Mass rather than Sealed Box to evaluate VAS. |