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Professional Series · Datasheet

Professional Series Ported 12" Enclosure American Bass Elite 12 · Single 12" Ported enclosure

Net volume
1.48 Cubic Feet
Tuning
35.5 Hz
Max mounting depth
6.772 Inches (American Bass Spec)
Cutout
10.945 Inches (American Bass Spec)
External dimensions
30.50 Inches W × 16.00 Inches H × 12.88 Inches D
Front baffle
Three 3/4" MDF layers, 2.25" total | Woofer Flush-Mounted In The Outer Layer
Buy at Audio IntensityFactory-direct, ships from Tullahoma
American Bass Elite 12Buy at Audio Intensity
  • Alignment: 1.48 cu ft net vented at 35.5 Hz. F3 31.5 Hz anechoic, 1.72 dB passband ripple
  • Driver: American Bass Elite 12 D4, 1200 W RMS, 14.0 mm Xmax, 32.64 Hz Fs
  • Build: Front-firing standard box, 2.25" three-layer baffle with the woofer flush-mounted in the outer layer, American Bass logo acrylic, dado joinery, 29.0 sq in front slot port beside the woofer with one bend along the back wall, port and excursion gated at 1440 W
  • Cabinet: 30.50" W x 16.00" H x 12.88" D, 54 lb, threaded insert kit included

Spec of record

Technical specifications

SeriesProline X Professional
Driver-Specific FitmentAmerican Bass Elite 12 D4 (Dual 4 Ohm)
Enclosure TypePorted | Front-Firing Standard Box
External Width30.50 Inches
External Height16.00 Inches
External Depth12.88 Inches
Internal Volume (Gross)2.32 Cubic Feet
Internal Volume (Net After Displacement)1.48 Cubic Feet
Port TypeVertical Slot Beside The Woofer | Front Exit | One 90 Degree Bend Along The Back Wall
Port Geometry2.00 x 14.50 Inches, 29.0 Square Inches, 32.97 Inches Of Path
Port Area29.0 Square Inches
Port Tuning (Fb)35.5 Hz
Port Mouth1/2 In Roundover On All Four Edges, 46.5 Square Inches At The Face
Port Air Velocity25.4 m/s In The Channel, 15.8 m/s At The Mouth, At 1440 W (17.0 m/s Chuff Threshold)
Design Power Basis1440 W RMS (1.2 x The Driver Rating) For Port Velocity And Excursion
Predicted F331.5 Hz (Anechoic)
Passband Ripple1.72 dB (Anechoic)
Subsonic Filter28 Hz High-Pass, 24 dB/Octave - REQUIRED On A Vented Enclosure
Driver Fs32.64 Hz
Driver Qts0.444
Driver Qes / Qms0.496 / 4.262
Driver Vas33.352 Liters / 1.178 Cubic Feet
Driver Sd510.0 Square Centimeters
Driver Mms253.98 g
Driver BL27.24
Driver Re6.8 Ohm
Driver Xmax14mm (One-Way)
Driver Displacement0.11 Cubic Feet (Published by American Bass)
Driver Sensitivity85.6 dB
Driver Power Handling1200 Watts RMS
Driver Overall Diameter12.500 Inches (American Bass Spec)
Mounting Depth Required6.772 Inches (American Bass Spec)
Cutout Diameter10.945 Inches (American Bass Spec)
Flush Mount Recess13.500 Inches In The Outer Layer
MaterialLangboard Elite 3/4" MDF
ConstructionShopSabre CNC / Two Windowed Braces Front To Back Either Side Of The Woofer
JoineryDado Joinery (CNC-Cut), Flat Panels
Front Baffle ConstructionThree 3/4" MDF layers, 2.25" total | Woofer Flush-Mounted In The Outer Layer
Baffle Layers3
AcrylicGlossy Black American Bass Logo Insert, Outer Layer, Standard
Mounting HardwareThreaded Insert Kit Included: 8-12 Inserts, Drill Bit, 2.5 In Allen-Head Screws, Allen Key, Gasket Tape
Voice Coil ConfigurationDual 4 Ohm
Terminal CupProline X ABS/Carbon Fiber Composite | Back Panel, Terminal-Cup Side | 12g OFC Pre-Wired
DampingNone - Ships Dry. Polyfill Detunes A Ported Enclosure
Recommended Power840-1200 Watts RMS (American Bass Rated: 1200W RMS)
Carpet FinishPlush Black
Shipping Weight60 lb
ShippingUPS Ground Parcel, Included In The 48 States
Bundle OptionsEnclosure Only (Bring Your Own American Bass Elite 12)
Warranty2-Year Limited (Enclosure)
ManufacturedTullahoma, Tennessee, USA

Modelled response

Performance in this enclosure

Net airspace
1.48
cu ft
Tuning
35.5
Hz · Fb
Half power
31.5
Hz · F3, anechoic
Xmax at
2493
W RMS · 28 Hz subsonic
With NO filter
446
W RMS · unfiltered
Port
15.8
m/s at the mouth · 1440 W

01Is this driver right for a ported box?

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

EBP = Fs ÷ Qes = 65.8
SEALED 0–50 TRANSITION 50–100 PORTED 100–150 0 50 100 150 EBP 65.8
American Bass Elite 12 D4 · EBP 65.8
Between 50 and 100 a driver takes either load, and the choice becomes one of priorities rather than of physics. The American Bass Elite 12 D4 reads 65.8. 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

1.48 cu ft net against a 33.4 L Vas, vented at 35.5 Hz.

Fb = 35.5 Hz  ·  F3 = 31.5 Hz  ·  passband ripple 1.72 dB
20 30 50 70 100 150 200 +4 0 −4 −8 −12 −16 −20 −24 −28 −32 FREQUENCY · Hz LEVEL · dB −3 dB Fb 35.5
American Bass Elite 12 D4 · Fb 35.5 Hz, F3 31.5 Hz
Anechoic, before any cabin gain, with the 28 Hz subsonic filter already applied. The vent takes over below 36 Hz and the cone stops doing the work there, which is what holds travel down at the bottom of the passband.

03Ported vs Sealed

No sealed comparison is shown for this driver.

A ported-versus-sealed chart is only worth reading against a sealed box someone would actually build: the one we make for the driver, or the one its maker recommends. Neither exists for the American Bass Elite 12 D4 — we do not build a sealed enclosure for it and American Bass publish no sealed volume for it — so rather than compare this cabinet against itself stuffed and sealed, a box no one would build, the comparison is left out.

04The 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 American Bass's published 14.0 mm. The two traces are the same cabinet with the subsonic filter switched on and switched off.

PXmax = 2493 W with a 28 Hz subsonic  ·  446 W with none  →  the filter is worth 5.6×
20 30 50 70 100 150 200 0 4 8 12 16 FREQUENCY · Hz CONE TRAVEL · mm PAST LINEAR TRAVEL · Xmax 14.0 mm 2493 W reaches Xmax here
2493 W · subsonic at 28 Hz, 24 dB/oct446 W · no subsonic filterXmax 14.0 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 14.0 mm. With a 28 Hz subsonic that takes 2493 W, reached first at 27 Hz. Take the filter away and the same cabinet reaches 14.0 mm on 446 W — the filter is worth 5.6× 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 446 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 — American Bass rate this one at 1200 W RMS, and that is the number that binds first here: heat stops you before travel does, so treat 1200 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

I built this box for one Elite 12 on the full Professional chassis: three layers of baffle with the frame flush in the outer one, and a slot port that runs along the back wall to put 35.5 Hz in a 12.9 inch deep box.

It is solved for the Elite 12 D4.

American Bass publishes no bolt circle, so the box ships with a threaded insert kit rather than pressed inserts.

1200 watts RMS by American Bass's rating. It is a dual 4 ohm driver: 8 ohms with its coils in series or 2 ohms in parallel. American Bass publishes no mounting hole locations for the Elite 12, so the inserts are not in the baffle when the box arrives. The insert kit is in the box: set the inserts where the woofer's own holes fall, with the drill bit and the 2.5 inch allen-head screws in the kit, and lay the gasket tape before the woofer goes down.

The Performance Optimized wedge is the smaller and cheaper box, and I try it first for every driver. I could not make its port keep up with the Elite 12: the calmest port that fits that envelope goes noisy at about 970 watts, under what this coil is rated to take, so I did not sell you that box.

It ships dry. Do not add polyfill to a ported box. Set your subsonic filter at 28 Hz.

Before you order

Questions

Why is this enclosure tuned to 35.5 Hz?

Sealed, the Elite 12 needs 0.77 cubic feet net to reach a Qtc of 0.707. Vented, it trades that for deeper extension. The slot is gated at 1440 W, 1.2 times American Bass's rating: the channel runs 25.4 m/s and the mouth 15.8, and the cone peaks at 10.6 of its 14 mm with the subsonic filter in place. Tuning is chosen for in-car response rather than an anechoic curve: a vehicle adds roughly 12 dB per octave below about 45 Hz, and this tuning is where that sum comes out flattest across 25 to 60 Hz.

Why is this a Professional build and not a Performance Optimized box?

Every driver is run through the Performance Optimized wedge and down-fire before this chassis; the Professional box is where a driver lands when that smaller envelope, 30 inches wide and 18 inches deep with a triangular side port, cannot give it what it needs at its rated power. The Elite 12 did not clear the port gate there. The calmest wedge port that fits that envelope is 24.7 square inches at 27.0 by 10.00 by 15.64 inches, and its mouth runs 18.9 metres per second at 1200 W against the 17 metres per second line where a port starts to chuff. That port would stay clean to about 970 W. The slot on this box reaches 29.0 square inches and holds the mouth at 15.8 metres per second at 1440 W. An under-ported box does not fail quietly. Air speed at the mouth rises with power; past the chuff line the flow turns turbulent and the port is audible on every note. The turbulence also chokes the port, so the box behaves as if it were tuned higher than it is, loses output near tuning, and lets the cone travel further below tuning than the design allows. This chassis is a full-size front-firing box on a 2.25 inch baffle built from three 3/4 inch layers with the woofer flush-mounted in the outer layer, an American Bass logo acrylic, and a port and excursion budget checked at 1440 W. It carries a 2 year warranty, against 1 year on the Performance Optimized lines.

Threaded inserts or a kit?

American Bass does not publish the mounting hole locations for the Elite 12, so we cannot install the threaded inserts before it ships. The threaded insert kit comes in the box instead: inserts sized to the woofer, the correct drill bit, 2.5 inch allen-head screws, an allen key and woofer gasket tape. You set the inserts when you mount the woofer, and this box ships with one kit.

Do I need a subsonic filter?

Yes, at 28 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 American Bass Elite 12 at 76 percent of its usable travel at 1440 W.

Would a sealed box be better for me?

Not one we can show you. We do not build a sealed enclosure for the American Bass Elite 12 and American Bass publish no sealed volume for it, so the Performance Graphs tab carries no ported-versus-sealed chart: the only sealed box left to plot would be this cabinet stuffed and sealed, which nobody would build, and a comparison against it would tell you nothing you could buy. What a vented box gives up is the region below tuning, where the cone unloads and the 28 Hz subsonic filter takes over; around 35.5 Hz the vent carries the load and cone travel drops to its minimum, which no sealed alignment can do.

How does the front port work?

It is a vertical slot beside the woofer, the full height of the cavity, 2.00 inches wide and 29.0 square inches. It runs 7.12 inches to the back wall and turns once along it for 20.10 inches; the fold costs about 1.5 Hz and the port is cut for it. The channel runs at 25.4 metres per second at 1440 W, 54 percent of its turbulence limit, and the mouth edges carry a 1/2 inch roundover so the air leaves the face at 15.8 metres per second against the 17 metres per second threshold where a slot starts to chuff.

What does the price cover, and how does it ship?

54 lb, 30.50" W x 16.00" H x 12.88" D external. Every Professional cabinet is priced the same way, by its size: this one is 3.64 cubic feet outside. Delivery to the 48 states is inside the price; it ships as a 54 lb parcel and checkout adds nothing. Do not add polyfill; it ships dry on purpose.

Is the Elite 12 included?

No. This is an enclosure only, cut for the American Bass Elite 12 specifically: the 10.945 inch cutout, the 6.772 inch mounting depth allowance and the 1.48 cubic foot alignment all come from American Bass's published parameters. It fits both coil versions; the alignment published here is the D4. Bring your own driver.

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