History
The effect of the various speaker parameters, enclosure sizes and port (and duct) dimensions on the performance of bass reflex systems was not well understood until the early 1960s. At that time, pioneering analyses by A.N. Thiele and Richard H. Small related these factors in a series of "alignments" (sets of the relevant speaker parameters) that produced useful, predictable responses. These made it possible for speaker manufacturers to design speakers to match various sizes of enclosures, and to match enclosures to given speakers with great predictability. All of this is constrained by the laws of physics, which is covered in detail in Thiele and Small's work. It is not possible to have a small speaker in a small enclosure producing extended bass response at high efficiencies (i.e., requiring only a low-powered amplifier). It's possible to have two of these attributes, but not all; this has been termed Hoffman's Iron Law after J. Anton Hoffman of KLH. The sound pressure produced depends upon the efficiency of the speaker, the mechanical or thermal power handling of the driver, the power input and the size of the driver.
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