Port bungs or bass boom

I have unfortunately had to move my speakers from the short wall of my long 27ft but narrow 14 ft lounge to the long wall to prevent impending divorce!!!

My speakers are now about 7 feet apart, very well clear of both side walls and about 10 feet from my listening spot, however the port mouths are only about 15 inches out from the back wall and the bass seems a bit loose although it has much more weight.

I have twin rear firing ports and have toyed with the idea of bunging up one port.

What does this actually do and is it a wise move or will I lose too much for a modest gain in bass tightness.

I will obviously experiment but I like to know what "should" happen first.

 

Bunging 1 of 2 ports on both speakers is an excellent idea. The reflex tuning will move to a lower freq . This will give a reduced output at the previous port freq, and extra low bass. Depending on your room boom, it might just sound like 'less bass'. A single port could produce harmless 'chuffing' turbulence on seriously low bass, I quite like this effect myself, and at least you'll know it's the box working hard and not your bass cones!

 

another thing to try is packing the port with drinking straws this can often change the port tuning just enough to eliminate the boom without losing the extension that you get from the port totally.
personally i've tried bunging the ports on my speakers and i've always gone back to the boomy but somehow nicer unbunged ports but ymmv.
would she really have divorced you if you'd refused to move the speakers... what would have happened if you'd threatened divorce if the speakers WERE moved?
cheers


julian

 

We had an agreement but then one of her militant mates came over and started dissing my room layout ( I wouldn't stand for this etc etc)
I doubt a divorce would have been the end result but for the sake of a quiet life!!!

I'm actually not sure it's booming bass but it just seems a bit more pronounced than I'd like at high volumes, however it has really filled out the sound at low levels. The other issue is the sound has gone from a "over there" presentation which I really liked to an "I'm on the stage" one which is a bit odd, I still have good image width and placement but I feel the performers are too near if you know what I mean. I shall toe them in a bit more I think.

It's either that or another new pair of speakers the 5th pair in as many months.

Any suggestions on some high sensitivity, close wall tolerant, bassy, preferably BBC sounding speakers would be welcome if I can't fix these.
I bought the things to fire down the long axis and I fear that they are too big to fire across the room.

Bloody women and their stupid "interior design".

 

to completely disagree..... (well it is an internet forum isnt it? isnt that what were supposed to do? )

I have a similar problem. Ive achieved best results by:

1) bringing the speakers about 2 feet from the back wall - a more near field position.
2) Moving them a couple of feet further apart...
3) then severly angling them in. This 'angle' has increased the distance the port sees before hitting the back wall.

Im also going to put some rugs behind the speakers (soon I hope ) which will help further still.


I dont like bunging speakers that were designed un-bunged personally. When Ive tried it myself with speakers in the past its sounded...I dunno, kind of ''wrong''.

Might work for you, and hell you can try the bung thing with a pair of socks, so nothing ventured nothing gained in both cases!!!!!!!!!!!! it wont cost $$$

 

I may have a go at that tonight there's some interesting reading on Audio Pysics website about positioning and they recommend much nearer field listening than you'd expect with the speakers very wide and toed to cross just behind your head.

A quick one for all, the room as I say is long and narrow but do the speakers still "see" a big room despite being used across the width in essentially one half of the room.

 

Three guesses as to what I'm going to suggest.
Hmmm tricky, but no prizes for guessing Harbeth Compact 7.
The ports are on the front... Made a BIG difference in my room (also firing across the long wall). I've actually got the Harbs much closer to rear wall than I ever dared with the rear-ported Spendors.
Don't even think about the Harbeth P3s with your amp, but you might also look into second hand Spendor classic range (which for the nth time have sod all in common with the iffy new floor standers) except the 3/1p - which is rear-ported.

 

jools,
my dear old namesake you're doing yourself no favours at all. having reached an accomodation with your good lady wife to allow one of her mates come round and upset domestic bliss is unforgiveable, what's next? criticism of your hair, clothes, body shape, car, children? is this 'mate' of hers really going to run both of your lives?
seriously though i'd nip this in the bud and would suggest the following...
1) explain to her that you have to now spend aproximately double in order to get a sound you are happy with now. treat yourself to that metronome kalista you've always lusted after.
2) get invited round to this 'mates' place and lay into it mercilessly you know... that shade of brown looks like dog shite, is that carpet really cat vomit orange? wow you've really captured the spirit of the 80's with this decor, do your have shares in laura ashley then? etc. be a right git about it.

if however you are willing to act as the proverbial doormat then probably kans or any other sealed box speaker or perhaps some front ported b&w's - 303's? the cheapy ones anyway cos you won;t be spending lots on them will you? the shoe budget might suffer.
cheers


julian

 

Julian.

That's cold, fair but cold!


If I can't fix the issues I will be geting the compact 7s as suggested by Joel (In fact they were almost bought before I decided on the Audes). I am a fan of the BBC sound and must admit that I'm prepared to trade bass extension for what these and speakers like them do so well which is virtually everything.

However I'm not giving up on the Audes, they are cracking speakers and I think with some careful placement I can live long and happy with them.
They only go down to 48Htz-2db so I reckon I should be able deal with this extra bass pretty easily. What would people say is the minimum decent distance from listener to speaker for the average floorstander as that's the trade off I have to make.

 

You can get really close to the Harbeths - many listen in near, nrearfield. I sit far away (that's when I'm in a "listening" position at all) at about 2m...
Much as I love the C7s, you did choose the Audes, so don't give up on them just yet!

 

From what I've experienced, playing with bungs is simply a bad compromise and as suggested earlier, not worth the effort.
Ported speakers are designed to be ported and not to have bungs stuffed in them.

Going for front ported or no ports would be a better option.

In the non-ported speakers, don't know too many. Clearly a number of Linn designs have no ports, but I don't remember them sounding much like BBCs (been a long time since I've heard any BBCs).

I could of course always try to sell you my rears. I have a pair of late 80s vintage Musical Fidelity MC4s, which are front ported and have a well controlled bass. They typically work well close to a wall. I've heard them against a number of speakers, and they're still on par with anything upto around £500-600.
I'm definitely open for negotiation...

 

are you a man or a mouse?

 

Have you tried any software to figure out good speaker locations for your room dimensions? I found this little program pretty useful in positioning mine, though I haven't followed the advice to the letter – I have my C7s at the recommended distance from the side walls and have tuned the position from the rear walls by ear.

I have always found that blocking a port on a speaker screws up the mid band even of it improves (curtails) the bass – I would be surprised if you could improve a speaker this way.

Tony.

PS Joel, what size room do you have and how far from the back wall do you have your C7s?

 

Room is about 3.5 x 4.5m - but the wall behind the "listening" position is in fact a sliding partition which opens on to a "Tatami" room. I have the speakers about 1.6m apart along the long wall and about 20cm from the concrete rear wall works for me!
We plan to remodel that part of the flat sometime within the next couple of years, at which point I'll move the hifi along its own wall, have a dedicated spur installed and generally move things around a fair amount.

 

hmm something I have wondered about ports, anyone know why sometimes 2 are used instead of one, and sometimes 2 of different legths?

 

I also wondered that.. I mean, Southampton is much smaller than Gt yarmouth.