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Performance Optimized · Datasheet

Performance Optimized Down Fire Ported 10" Enclosure Skar Audio VS-10 · Single 10" Ported enclosure

Net volume
1.25 Cubic Feet
Tuning
37.5 Hz
Max mounting depth
3.890 Inches (Skar Audio Spec)
Cutout
9.075 Inches (Skar Audio Spec)
External dimensions
31 Inches W × 7.75 Inches H × 15.00 Inches D
Front baffle
Down Firing - Driver Fires Toward Floor
Buy at Audio IntensityFactory-direct, ships from Tullahoma
Skar Audio VS-10Buy at Audio Intensity
  • Alignment: 1.25 cu ft net vented at 37.5 Hz. F3 30.8 Hz anechoic, 3.70 dB passband ripple
  • Driver: Skar Audio VS-10 D2/D4, 500 W RMS, 9.1 mm Xmax, 38.00 Hz Fs
  • Build: Proline X V-groove and dado joinery, L-wrap slot port with a faceted 90 degree bend, double-layer 1.5" baffle, side-mounted terminal cup
  • Cabinet: 31" W x 15.00" D x 7.75" H measured in down fire position, 9.50" tall installed on its feet, square corners, ships dry

Spec of record

Technical specifications

SeriesProline X Performance Optimized Down Fire
Driver-Specific FitmentSkar Audio VS-10 D2/D4 (Dual 2 Ohm or Dual 4 Ohm)
Enclosure TypePorted | Down Fire Geometry | Floor-Coupled
Baffle ConfigurationDown Firing - Driver Fires Toward Floor
External Width31 Inches
External Depth15.00 Inches
External Height7.75 Inches (Cabinet Only)
FeetIncluded - 1.75 Inch Standoff, Required For Down Fire Operation
Installed Height9.50 Inches (7.75 Cabinet Plus 1.75 Feet) - MEASURE AGAINST THIS, NOT THE CABINET HEIGHT
Dimension ReferenceAll External Dimensions Measured In Down Fire Position
Internal Volume (Gross)1.39 Cubic Feet
Internal Volume (Net After Displacement)1.25 Cubic Feet
Port TypeL-Wrap Slot | One Folded Wall | Single Faceted 90 Degree Bend
Port Tuning (Fb)37.5 Hz
Port Channel3.50 x 6.25 Inches (21.9 Square Inches)
Port Path Length26.37 Inches (Centreline)
Port Mouth Area26.5 Square Inches (3.00 Inch Corner Chamfer)
Port Air Velocity15.6 m/s At Tuning (17.0 m/s Chuff Threshold)
Predicted F330.8 Hz (Anechoic)
Passband Ripple3.70 dB (Anechoic)
Subsonic Filter30 Hz High-Pass, 24 dB/Octave - REQUIRED On A Vented Enclosure
Driver Fs38.00 Hz
Driver Qts0.700
Driver Qes / Qms0.750 / 5.200
Driver Vas16.480 Liters / 0.582 Cubic Feet
Driver Sd363.0 Square Centimeters
Driver Mms189.50 g
Driver BL14.24
Driver Xmax9mm (One-Way)
Driver Displacement0.05 Cubic Feet (Estimated, Skar Audio Publishes None)
Driver Sensitivity83.1 dB
Driver Power Handling500 Watts RMS
Driver Overall Diameter10.670 Inches (Skar Audio Spec)
Mounting Depth Required3.890 Inches (Skar Audio Spec)
Cutout Diameter9.075 Inches (Skar Audio Spec)
Woofer Ring11.625 Inch OD, Bonded Under The Baffle In A Machined Recess
MaterialLangboard Elite 3/4" MDF
ConstructionShopSabre CNC / Windowed Brace Between Cutout And Port Terminus
JoineryV-Groove and Dado (CNC-Cut)
Front Baffle ConstructionDouble-Layer 1.5" MDF | Outer Layer Flush Recess, Driver Mounts To Inner Layer
Corner ProfileSquare (Down Fire Series Standard)
Mounting Hardware8 x #8-32 Hurricane Nuts Fitted (16 Positions Cut For Driver Orientation) | Stainless Steel Machine Screws Included
Voice Coil ConfigurationDual 2 Ohm
Terminal CupProline X ABS/Carbon Fiber Composite | Side Mounted | 12g OFC Pre-Wired
DampingNone - Ships Dry. Polyfill Detunes A Ported Enclosure
Recommended Power350-500 Watts RMS (Skar Audio Rated: 500W RMS)
Carpet FinishPlush Black
Bundle OptionsEnclosure Only (Bring Your Own Skar Audio VS-10)
Warranty1-Year Limited (Enclosure)
ManufacturedTullahoma, Tennessee, USA

Modelled response

Performance in this enclosure

Net airspace
1.25
cu ft
Tuning
37.5
Hz · Fb
Half power
30.8
Hz · F3, anechoic
Xmax at
630
W RMS · 30 Hz subsonic
With NO filter
146
W RMS · unfiltered
Port
15.6
m/s at the mouth

01Is this driver right for a ported box?

Efficiency bandwidth product places the motor before anything else is decided.

EBP = Fs ÷ Qes = 50.7
SEALED 0–50 TRANSITION 50–100 PORTED 100–150 0 50 100 150 EBP 50.7
Skar Audio VS-10 D2 · EBP 50.7
Between 50 and 100 a driver takes either load, and the choice becomes one of priorities rather than of physics. The Skar Audio VS-10 D2 reads 50.7. Ported buys output and low-end reach around tuning; sealed buys a shallower rolloff below it. This cabinet takes the first trade.

02What the box does to it

1.25 cu ft net against a 16.5 L Vas, vented at 37.5 Hz.

Fb = 37.5 Hz  ·  F3 = 30.8 Hz  ·  passband ripple 3.70 dB
20 30 50 70 100 150 200 +8 +4 0 −4 −8 −12 −16 −20 −24 −28 −32 −36 FREQUENCY · Hz LEVEL · dB −3 dB Fb 37.5
Skar Audio VS-10 D2 · Fb 37.5 Hz, F3 30.8 Hz
Anechoic, before any cabin gain, with the 30 Hz subsonic filter already applied. The vent takes over below 38 Hz and the cone stops doing the work there, which is what holds travel down at the bottom of the passband.

03Perceived Ported vs Sealed

This cabinet, 1.25 cu ft net vented at 37.5 Hz, against Skar Audio's recommended sealed box, 0.50 cu ft.

Ported Fb 37.5 Hz  ·  the 0.50 cu ft sealed box runs Qtc 1.03, Fc 56 Hz
20 30 50 70 100 150 200 +8 +4 0 −4 −8 −12 −16 −20 −24 −28 −32 −36 FREQUENCY · Hz LEVEL · dB +8.4 dB at 37 Hz
Ported · this cabinet, 1.25 cu ft, Fb 37.5 HzSkar Audio's recommended sealed, 0.50 cu ft net, Qtc 1.03
Shaded blue is where the ported alignment is louder for the same power, orange where the sealed one is. The sealed curve is Skar Audio's recommended sealed box, 0.50 cu ft, not this cabinet with the port blocked: two different boxes, because that is the choice a buyer actually has. Across 25 to 60 Hz the vent is worth 8.4 dB at its widest and 6.4 dB on average. This is the anechoic picture, which is not what you hear in a car.

04Real World Ported vs Sealed

The same two boxes with cabin gain applied, 45 Hz corner, 18 dB ceiling.

Flatness across 25–60 Hz: ported 5.5 dB spread, the 0.50 cu ft sealed box 3.7 dB
20 30 50 70 100 150 200 +8 +4 0 −4 −8 −12 −16 −20 −24 −28 −32 −36 FREQUENCY · Hz LEVEL · dB +8.4 dB at 37 Hz
Ported, in-car · 5.5 dB spreadSkar Audio's recommended sealed, 0.50 cu ft net, in-car · 3.7 dB spread
Cabin gain lifts both boxes by the same amount, so the gap between them does not change: what changes is the shape each one ends up with. A car pressurises below roughly 45 Hz, which fills in the sealed box's shallower rolloff and over-drives it where the ported box is already flat. Across 25 to 60 Hz, the band kick and bass fundamentals occupy, this alignment holds 5.5 dB of spread against 3.7 dB for Skar Audio's recommended sealed box, 0.50 cu ft. The sealed curve is flatter on paper; the ported one trades that for output. Note where the curves cross. Below about 21 Hz the sealed alignment becomes the louder of the two and stays louder all the way down, by up to 1.6 dB: a sealed box rolls off gently into the subsonic region where a vented one falls away steeply once it is below tuning and the vent stops contributing. If the content you are chasing lives below 21 Hz, a sealed alignment reaches further down than this one does. Cabin gain here is a house assumption, not a measurement of your vehicle.

05The watts that reach Xmax (in this enclosure)

Travel scales with the square root of power, so there is one wattage that puts the cone exactly on Skar's published 9.1 mm. The two traces are the same cabinet with the subsonic filter switched on and switched off.

PXmax = 630 W with a 30 Hz subsonic  ·  146 W with none  →  the filter is worth 4.3×
20 30 50 70 100 150 200 0 4 8 FREQUENCY · Hz CONE TRAVEL · mm PAST LINEAR TRAVEL · Xmax 9.1 mm 630 W reaches Xmax here
630 W · subsonic at 30 Hz, 24 dB/oct146 W · no subsonic filterXmax 9.1 mm one-way, published
Each trace touches the limit and no further, because each is drawn at the exact power that puts the cone on 9.1 mm. With a 30 Hz subsonic that takes 630 W, reached first at 29 Hz. Take the filter away and the same cabinet reaches 9.1 mm on 146 W — the filter is worth 4.3× the safe power. A vent unloads the cone below tuning, so there is nothing holding it once the box stops loading: on a sealed build a subsonic filter is an improvement, here it is required equipment. The unfiltered trace is still rising where this chart stops at 20 Hz, so treat 146 W as a bound rather than a floor. Every wattage on this page is a MECHANICAL limit, not an electrical one. It is the power at which the cone runs out of linear travel in this cabinet, and nothing more. What the voice coil can dissipate as heat is a separate ceiling set by the driver, not by the box — Skar rate this one at 500 W RMS, and that is the number that binds first here: heat stops you before travel does, so treat 500 W as the ceiling and the travel figures above as headroom. Final wired impedance, amplifier output and how long you hold the level are all electrical questions this graph does not answer.

From the shop floor

Installer's take

The VS-10 is one of Skar's shallow motors, 3.89 inches deep, which is what a down fire wants: the motor sits low and the cabinet stays 7.75 inches tall.

1.25 cubic feet at 37.5 Hz gets it to 30.8 Hz anechoic. One cabinet serves both coils: it is designed on the VS-10 D2, and the VS-10 D4 solves to 1.25 cubic feet at 37.5 Hz with an F3 of 30.7 Hz in this down fire, so the same box fits either.

The driver mounts on a bonded ring carrying #8-32 hurricane nuts, so it threads into steel rather than MDF.

500 watts RMS by Skar's rating. The D2 wires to 4 ohms in series or 1 ohm in parallel; the D4 to 8 ohms series or 2 ohms parallel. It ships dry. Do not add polyfill to a ported box. Set your subsonic filter at 30 Hz.

Before you order

Questions

Why is this enclosure tuned to 37.5 Hz?

Sealed, the VS-10 needs 28.95 cubic feet net to reach a Qtc of 0.707. Vented, it trades that for deeper extension. Here the slot runs 19.0 m/s in the channel and 15.6 at the mouth at Skar's 500 W rating, the cone peaks at 8.1 of its 9.1 mm, and passband ripple is 3.7 dB. Skar's own ported recommendation is 1.60 cubic feet at 33 Hz, before driver and port displacement. Tuning is chosen for in-car response rather than for an anechoic curve: a vehicle adds roughly 12 dB per octave below about 45 Hz, so a box tuned very low reinforces a region the cabin is already reinforcing and leaves 40 to 60 Hz thin. In this cabinet that lands at 5.5 dB of in-car spread across 25 to 60 Hz, which is where kick and bass fundamentals live.

Does this enclosure ship with polyfill?

No, and on this build in particular do not add any. Every sealed Proline X enclosure ships with polyfill pre-installed; a ported one must not, because damping material changes the effective volume the port is tuned against. The port on this cabinet is cut to 26.37 inches of centreline path for 37.5 Hz. Stuff it and you move the tuning without shortening the port, which gives you a mistuned box rather than a bigger-sounding one. The 3.70 dB passband you are paying for depends on it staying dry.

Do I need a subsonic filter?

Yes, at 30 Hz, 24 dB per octave. Below tuning a vented box stops loading the cone and excursion runs away toward DC. With the filter in place this cabinet puts the Skar Audio VS-10 at 89 percent of its usable travel at full rated power; without it there is no meaningful number to quote, because the excursion curve does not converge. On a sealed build a subsonic filter is an improvement. Here it is required equipment.

How much power can I run?

Skar Audio rate the VS-10 at 500 W RMS and that is the thermal ceiling. The figures on the Performance Graphs tab are a different quantity: they are mechanical limits, the power at which the cone reaches the end of its linear travel in this specific cabinet. Here the cone sits at 89 percent of usable travel at the driver's own rating, so heat is what stops you, not travel. Final wired impedance and amplifier output are separate questions again.

Would a sealed box be better for me?

Below about 21 Hz, yes. The maker's recommended sealed box is louder down there by up to 1.6 dB, because a sealed box rolls off gently into the subsonic region where a vented one falls away steeply once it is under tuning. Above that this alignment is the louder of the two for the same power. The Performance Graphs tab plots this cabinet, 1.25 cubic feet vented at 37.5 Hz, against Skar Audio's recommended sealed box, 0.50 cu ft, so you can see exactly where they cross.

What is the L-wrap port and why does it matter?

It is a slot port formed by one folded wall: a leg down the long side of the cabinet past the woofer ring, one faceted 90 degree bend, and a leg across the end opening through a chamfered corner. On this cabinet that is 26.37 inches of centreline path and 21.9 square inches of channel, exiting a 26.5 square inch mouth. Air leaves at 15.6 metres per second at tuning against a 17.0 threshold, and the channel runs at 44 percent of its turbulence limit. One wall and one bend rather than a serpentine's three means less wall area inside the box, fewer joints to leak, and one place for flow to separate instead of three.

How is this enclosure built?

V-groove and dado joinery in 0.75 inch Langboard Elite MDF with a double-layer 1.5 inch baffle. The driver mounts to a 11.625 inch ring bonded under the baffle in a machined recess, carrying eight #8-32 hurricane nuts so it threads into steel rather than MDF. A windowed brace sits 3.76 inches clear of the cutout edge and 2.49 inches clear of the port terminus; the window is not weight saving, a solid panel there would split the cavity and make the box a bandpass. Walls seat into dados in both the lid and the baffle. Square corners, plush black carpet, side-mounted terminal cup.

Is the VS-10 included?

No. This is an enclosure only, cut and folded for the Skar Audio VS-10 specifically. The 9.075 inch cutout, the 3.890 inch mounting depth allowance and the 1.25 cubic foot alignment all come from Skar Audio's published parameters for this exact driver, and the port is sized against its Xmax and power rating. It is not a universal box with a 10 inch hole in it. Bring your own driver.

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