Personally i started playing with car audio at your age, and that was just two years ago

The type and dimensions of the box you put your sub(s) in is pretty much as important as the sub(s) themselves for how they're going to sound.. ported is more efficient than sealed and will generally be much louder at the same power- downside is ported usually sounds 'sloppier' to a certain degree, with sealed giving better SQ. The amount of airspace inside the box is important too. Here's a good reference for matching subs to bassworx boxes/cu. ft, that's likely what the shop you visit carries in stock anyway. http://www.bassworx.com/matrix/ and don't go for anything less than an 80% match, personally i wouldn't even go less than 90%.

Amp wise; having more power than you need is always better than not enough, and you need to look at the RMS ratings, think of them as the 'real' ratings- peak power means next to nothing in car audio. I would only look at popular and well known amps (this goes for subs too) when you're just starting out especially, brands like Alpine/Rockford Fosgate/Clarion/Kicker/Focal/JL Audio, you'll probably see these the most anyway but i know places like Visions will try to sell you no-name amps with no RMS rating that are crap quality so try doing research first if you're unsure.

Sub wise; The sort of sound you like should at least dictate to some degree what size of sub in what enclosure would work well for you- bigger isn't always better. 10"s will probably sound punchy and tight while 12"s or bigger will sound deeper and louder.

The setup i have right now for bass consists of dual 10" Rockford Fosgate P1's in their manufacturer's spec ported box (two 8ohm subs ran down to 4ohm rated for 300w RMS together) powered by an Alpine 500w 2ohm (300w 4ohm) amp and i love it. I listen to alot of metal/hard rock which is why i love 10" subs but i also like to crank it up pretty often especially when i do listen to hiphop/dubstep so overall ported is also the way to go for me.

Another thing i'll leave you with, the amount of power probably isn't as big of a factor as you think. it takes 10x the power to be 2x as loud, quality and efficiency are important. to put this in perspective, a buddy of mine has two 12"s in a sealed box ran off 850w RMS.. My two 10"s in a ported box to spec' ran off only 300w are noticeably louder- his words not mine

 

Quite possibly the biggest misconception in any audio hobby:

 

Which is why i added 'usually' and 'to a certain degree'

How would you define the difference?

 

Define the difference? Vented boxes have a hole in them. That's about all you can say for certain.

 

So you're going to tell me that sealed doesn't usually sound cleaner than ported?

 

I will tell you that every day of the week. If a vented box sounds sloppy then the person who designed it effed it up.

Designing a vented box takes more than just dropping a volume and frequency into a program and cutting the pipe whatever length it spits out. Many people don't understand this though which leads to a lot of bad sounding vented boxes out there.

I will concede that if you don't know what you are doing, it is harder to mess up a sealed box.

 

Okay i can see where you're coming from now, but i'm talking practicality here. this guy likely isn't going to be building himself a pro ported box anytime soon, he's going to be buying a pre-made probably a bassworx, from what i've seen they're not designed for competition use, they have a degree of port noise and whatnot, and compared to other bassworx boxes are going to have that 'sloppier' sound, am i right?

 

IMO any premade box has too many compromises to really be effective. The enclosure IMO is a critical piece of equipment as important as the woofer and amplifier driving it. Doesn't it make sense to spend more than $69.99 on it?

 

Agreed

So, any thoughts Anthony?