I just bought a bass speaker in an enclosure from a pawn shop. It is a Jensen 10 inch model xs 1010. My question is; should the speaker box have some sort of port or hole in it? I see on line that some do and some don't. opinions please, Thanks
Some cabs are ported, some are not, as you already know. :)
According to the XS1010 manual, it can be used either way:
"Multi-purpose polycone 10" subwoofer. Designed for sealed, ported and bandpass enclosures"
Do you realize this is a subwoofer, commonly used in car stereo systems, rather than the more common 'woofer' you'd see in a bass cab? With a top-end rating of 1k hz, it might sound a bit muddy playing bass through it, if that's your only cab.
Anyway, if you download the program WinISD, you can enter your speaker's specs and the box dimensions, and see a frequency chart; you can do this for a sealed box as well as for ports of various sizes.
http://www.linearteam.dk/default.aspx?pageid=winisdpro
Here's a nifty little bandpass powered sub someone made with an XS1010: