Which is louder, two ten inch woofers ported or 15 inch woof

Which is louder, two ten inch woofers ported or 15 inch woofer sealed?
The subs could get the same power at a four ohm load. The two ten inch woofers are linked to four ohm's. The 15inch single voice coil is a 4ohm. So same power.

His question dealt with two 10's and one 15".

Effective piston area cone area has lots to do with output. Two 10" woofers have a maximum total cone area of about 157 square inches when a 15" has an area of about 176 square inches.

However, the 15" in the sealed enclosure is less economical because half its acoustic wave is lost in the box. The 10" ported enclosure will make use of both sides of the driver, giving an estimated increase of 3dB twice the power over the sealed box.

However, some posters are correct in stating that the specific woofers and the enclosures make a world of difference. The former explanation assumes all other things are equal.

If you have an amplifier with lots of power and a high Damping Factor, the 15" could sound pretty good, but it's more hard to control such a big mass. This is why most of the better home speakers use 10" or smaller drivers. you're also losing control on the ported box because that is one of the trade offs of going ported over sealed.

If you want my opinion of the "best sounding" choice which is typically my goal, it could be to go with the two 10's in a SEALED enclosure.

I have been a professional mobile electronics installer for 25 years.

Believe it or not it is not the speakers. It depends on the wattage of the AMP you hook them up to. Honestly for Cars, the best could be twelve inch subs, but I know many people who are using just ten inch subs with a 600 watt amp small in comparison to my setup that pound real hard. For SUV's, Trucks and Vans, I could propose 15 inch subs. If you are hooking up just one sub, the power that drives it could let the sub to punch more harder than ten inch subs linked. Hope I did not confuse you.

if the tens can handle more power together than the 15" then the 10's will most likely be louder if you are amp can push em as long as the box is ported right

Given the enclosure sizes are correct to the speakers you will get better answer out of the 10" woofers because their is less mass in each speaker to move so it is more responsive..15" subs distort easily and are not generally louder

It's really hard to say which could be louder as I have seen it go both ways

If the 10" subs are wired reverse of eachother so when ones pushing out the other is pulling in and they're bolted face to face in a ported box the 10" subs are going to be louder because you could have a homemade bass tube with two active speakers rather than most tubes you purchase that has one active speaker and one passive cone.

This is a liked question, and one that is hard to answer certainly. There are so many factors that come in to play — power, enclosure type and size, also as your particular car and your individual view. But, usually speaking, given adequate power the two 10" subs will sound a little cleaner and punch harder because their joint cone surface area yields more sound pressure. The single 12" sub, but, may sound a little deeper.

well I have 10's in a ported box, and to me there are more responsive and they get damn deafening. the only thing 15 's will make the notes sound deeper. plus with a 15 you must have a bigger box and you may be able to most likely get the same box use out of two 10's. I can tell you 10's will definetly kick some butt.
good luck.

A sealed 15 gives a better "punch", but it depends on your amp. You need a good one to get the best.

since they'll both be to get the same power, the 10's in a ported enclosure will most likely be louder. the 15 will be able to play deeper bass, but the 10's will be louder since they're in a ported enclosure. But if you are putting two tens in a ported enclosure why can not you put one 15 in a ported enclosure? should not be much bigger than an enclosure for two tens ported. and the 15 ported could most likely be louder I believe. sealed enclosures are typically make for better sound quality enclosures, but for volume and SPL ported is much better and more economical