It's simple really, you get a pressure boost in the sealed cabin of a vehicle, you don't in a boat.

Similar to s small room system compared to a concert hall.

Bottom line you need to move a lot of air in the boat, correctly designed ported enclosures will give you the most output, but the driver also has to be designed for it.

I agree the area of the cabin in a boat may come into play, but it shouldn't make a huge difference. Cockpit can be a different story as it's open. A sub in the cabin will sound best facing toward the bow.

If there was a huge difference, and the sub is in an enclosure, then IMO something else is going on.

Ok I thought he was talking about the sound outside the cabin.
There will be a difference, you get module response At different frequencies even in a car. Shape size, materials make a differance. Head unit output, supply voltage, lots of things to check.

Can you give us a little more detail, same size enclosure?

The sound in the cabin is ok...its the sound in the cockpit that I'm after. Guys on a car audio forum are saying I need a ported enclosure.

The enclosure I used in the boat is the same one that was in the truck.

Refer back to my other post.(11)

Yes ported enclosures are more efficient then sealed but you still need to design it to match the driver.

To bad I sold my Infinity ported with dual 12".

I have a pair of cheap 10 year old RF subs in my car powered by a 100 watt amp and 6 mid level MBQ speakers that run off of head unit power.
In my boat, I have 8 DC Golds which are larger and much better speakers power by a 700rms watt PDX amp and 2 Alpine subs powered by a 450 rms watt PDX amp.

Both systems sound similar when cranked up. You need a lot more power and sound in a boat to match what you hear in a car.

I am planning on running some subs in the boat as well, probably going to go with Solobaric 12s hooked up to my 1000/1 JL monoblock. I have heard those subs in a sealed box, but I plan to run ported in the Nordic. It would be nice to keep up with all those jack ass ski boats playing techno all the time. Time to get to the drawing board on box design with limited space :)

I've heard a Nordic with twelves on each side of the engine in boxes, that thing was ridiculously loud. Awesome!

I was thinking about do that. I was also thinking about running the boxes under the back seat, kind of like straddling the engine bay and bench (solobarics like air space) and having the sub face back, and the port face forward. I guess we will see how ambitious I feel like being next summer lol.

Yea getting bass in the cockpit of a boat takes some work. I personally have three 12" Rockford subs in a custom built back seat in sealed boxes. They are being driven by an Autotek 99 amp. I could have gotten a bit more boom going with a ported box, but it takes a larger box and I like all kinds of music not just rap techno.

Putting the subs in the cabin is not a real good way to get bass in the cockpit.

Everyones idea of bass is different. For some people all they want is to know that it's there. Some people think distortion is bass. I personally like clean tight bass. Thus the design of my system. Mine can go from subtle to makin ripples in the water.