@roxy54 wrote:
"I do not understand the idea of manufacturers or reviewers suggesting that ports should be stuffed with plugs if the end user is having problems with the bass. After all. speakers that are sealed boxes were designed to be sealed, and speakers that are ported were designed to be ported, so how is it not wrong to change that by stuffing the ports?"
The in-room bass response is ALWAYS speakers + room. So the net result varies from room to room and also varies as either the speaker (or listener) position changes within a given room. The designer picks the tuning frequency he thinks is most likely to give the best results in the sort of room acoustic situations anticipated for those speakers.
But sometimes the speaker position + room acoustics = either a lot more or a lot less bass energy than what would be ideal. Being able to change the port tuning frequency (and correspondingly change the shape of the speaker + room response curve) can be beneficial.
Also, certain amplifiers such as single-ended triode and output transformerless tube amps tend to have a much lower than normal "damping factor", in which case a lower port tuning frequency (and in some cases even all ports plugged) often results in better bass response.
Finally, many people (including myself) usually prefer that the sound err on the side of "too little bass" instead of "too much bass", if it's either/or.
Duke
designer of speakers with multiple pluggable ports
"I do not understand the idea of manufacturers or reviewers suggesting that ports should be stuffed with plugs if the end user is having problems with the bass. After all. speakers that are sealed boxes were designed to be sealed, and speakers that are ported were designed to be ported, so how is it not wrong to change that by stuffing the ports?"
The in-room bass response is ALWAYS speakers + room. So the net result varies from room to room and also varies as either the speaker (or listener) position changes within a given room. The designer picks the tuning frequency he thinks is most likely to give the best results in the sort of room acoustic situations anticipated for those speakers.
But sometimes the speaker position + room acoustics = either a lot more or a lot less bass energy than what would be ideal. Being able to change the port tuning frequency (and correspondingly change the shape of the speaker + room response curve) can be beneficial.
Also, certain amplifiers such as single-ended triode and output transformerless tube amps tend to have a much lower than normal "damping factor", in which case a lower port tuning frequency (and in some cases even all ports plugged) often results in better bass response.
Finally, many people (including myself) usually prefer that the sound err on the side of "too little bass" instead of "too much bass", if it's either/or.
Duke
designer of speakers with multiple pluggable ports