Sub reviews sometimes rate subs very differently depending on whether they are being used for music or movies (movies tend to want "lots of bass", music tends to favor "tight" bass that stops quickly).
Not really. You want the same tight bass for movies that do for music. Sloppy bass = poorly defined boom instead of the whump/thump you should get from explosions.
You can design a sub that gets relatively more output from the port/cabinet combo and get more bass for the $$, but if you look at the graphs showing how response trails off over time at different frequencies you see the cost -- a much slower "decay" around the port/cabinet tune frequency.
Again, I disagree. The port and cabinet of the sub act as an ampifyer to boost the bottom end of the sub, but they only amplify what the driver puts out.
What affects the 'speed" of the bass is driver design: motor strength, syspension compliance, driver linearity. If you have a ported sub that produces sloppy bass, its the driver design.
Lots of bass for movies will comes from driver displacement. You need a big driver and/or lots of driver exscursion to produce those deep pressure waved we like from action movies.
The 'hit you in the chest' bass actually comes from the upper bass and may well come partially or even mostly from your mains if you have a lower crossover.
