Seek non-ported speakers - $700 to $1500 To stop the port-itis in my room!


I have a smallish room 12x12 that has an unusual ceiling.  I've used several highly regarded speakers in the space and the real ported ones are the biggest problem.  I tried KEF ls50's and wanted to love them but the lower-end was too puffy sounding.  Front ported speakers do have less of a "port-itis" issue.  I found a used pair of polk lsi9's and they sound very good in my room but not great.  I'm looking for ideas for non-ported or ported speakers that are less problematic.  Range $700-$1500.  Thanks for your input audio brothers!  Drumbe the retired drummer.
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Showing 1 response by audiokinesis

Drumbe, in my experience "smooth" bass is "fast" bass.  In-room bass peaks actually decay into inaudibility slower than the rest of the bass region, and this sounds "slow" and blurs subsequent bass notes. 

Speaker + room = a "minimum phase" system at low frequencies, which means that the time-domain response and the frequency response tracks one another.  So the good news is:  Fix one and you have fixed the other.

For instance, bass traps reduce the decay times and therefore improve the time domain response, which simultaneously improves the low-end frequency response. 

I have found that asymmetry can also be your friend in the bass region.  If you can position your two speakers such that each is a different distance from all of the walls, that will probably help.

So imagine looking down on your standard triangular setup (speaker-listener-speaker) in your square room, but now rotate that triangle perhaps 30 degrees.  This way your speakers will each be a different distance from each of the walls, and your listening position as well.  The more dissimilar the speakers' bass-region room-interaction peak-and-dip patterns at your listening position, the smoother their sum will be. 

Not saying this is the only thing you should try, but the price is right.

(I make a four-piece subwoofer system and recommend asymmetrical placement, based on the same reasoning.)

Duke