Anyone try stuffing their ports?

HI,
I have a total of 5 B&W 805S speakers in my bedroom 5.1 system. I use the supplied foam port plugs on all five. I did this to better integrate the 805S's with my dual B&W ASW800 subwoofers.

I have tried this system both with and without the plugs. Here is my take. If you are using the speakers without the B&W subs then they are best without the plugs. This set up gives deeper bass (such as it is). However, with subs, the plugs allow a smoother integration with the subs.

BTW, this is an incredible little system. The 805S's are excellent within the limitations imposed by their small size.

Sparky

HI,
Yes you are right. B&W is pretty smart. The result is the 805S's and the subs integrate seamlessly. When Stereophile's John Atkinson reviewed my speakers he ran curves with the ports both unstuffed and stuffed. While neither he or B&W gave any guidence concerning when or why to use the port plugs, it was semi-obvious what was intended. Note that not only is the low frequency response decreased somewhat with the plugs (to close to a acoustic suspension alignment), the response is also smoothed with the typical port hump reduced to almost zero. This is the desired result to integrate the subwoofers.

Sparky