Speakers VERY close to wall - Cork board useful?


Hi there,

I have a set of Klipsch RP-5's, that have a built in powered sub, and a rear facing port on the bottom of each tower. I have them in a small room (15'x13') with about 6' of separation. Considering the small room dimensions I have them pushed up against the wall because otherwise they'd be in the way. They are at least at a slight angle, but the port for the sub is still only about 4" off the wall. 

Would putting a square of cork board on the wall directly behind the port, cut out so its slightly larger than the port, make any positive difference compared to an ordinary sheetrock wall?  (The cork comes in a roll, so it is maybe 1/8" thick)

Any thoughts, additional suggestions on other common house-hold materials/geometry of cut/ etc, or comments would be appreciated! (other than "move the speakers away from wall" bc unfortunately that's not an option in this room)

:)
thanks!!!
hockey4496

Showing 4 responses by hockey4496

I forgot to mention, in case it matters, that the room is carpeted. The speakers are on feet with spikes raised to a height of about 1" 
Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll look into gikacoustics, but in the mean time y'all don't think the cork would have any value with the current setup? 

Thankfully the sub output is adjustable via a dial on the back of the speaker. Overall the sound is great, especially with digital sources. What made me wonder about using cork though is when playing vinyl, some records sound perfect with the sub adjusted to say 25%, then on others 25% is loud/boomy and over shadows the treble/mids so I have to continually adjust both speakers up and down between different albums, and occasionally even between songs on the same record. 

Ive tried varying tracking forces on the tone arm and it doesn't have an effect on the bass issue described above so I thought maybe playing around with the surface of the wall could level out the acoutics a bit so the lows aren't so sporadically over powering
Williewonka - 
did you just slide the vent you bought into the speaker port? Or did you attach it in a particular way (modify speaker port, wrap tape to get correct diameter, etc.) I have some curved pvc tubing in the garage that may be about the right size that's could try without having to spend anymore $$ if it will work the same

thanks!