Front vs. Rear Port


Seems like the majority of speakers have rear ports, but a significant minority has front ports. What are pros and cons? Are font ports preferable when the speaker needs to be close to the wall?
raduray
I port out the bottom or back of cabinet I tried front ports not my cup of tea,best is bottom porting [this is harder and more costly to pull off]next back.Only front ports I now use are slot ports for bass systems only[oris ref]If my customers would let me back port these cabinets I would but they like the look;).
Aktchi, I showed two speakers of my own design at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver a few weeks ago, using "AudioKinesis" as my brand name. I don't sell through a dealer network - just peddle 'em myself.

Don't want to hi-jack Raduray's thread, so will just mention that you can read about 'em on my website, www.audiokinesis.com.

Johnk, I also like down-firing ports, though at the moment I'm not using a down-firing port in any of my designs. But I'll concede that down-firing is probably the ideal. Do you find that the floor surface underneath a down-firing port is a significant consideration? I mean, like whether it's a hard surface or carpeted?

Cheers,

Duke
Duke spells the truth.
The whole idea of rear port is to isolate woofer resonance.
Hi Duke, I notice little diferance with floor materials but I do include a damping pad if one has a very live room also inc cones or feet if one has deep pile carpets.Problem is spacing of port from floor and designing cabinets to have the free space below for the port this causes extra work for you will need funky bases or arched plinths,more careful tuning of ports, but it sure works. Loads the room with even bass pressure, allows easy of placement, systems so equiped can be placed near walls or far out in room since bass port is using floor for reinforcement I as a designer know distance from floor to port and can design for this with front or rear you dont know distance to walls just floor so loudspeaker with front or rear ports needs more careful room placement.PS if you use a bottom port in one of your designs I want a free T shirt .lol
Interesting about the bottom ports. May be what I need as the only (WAF) acceptable location for my speakers is in the corners of my room. My B&W DM580's are boomy, even with old (clean) socks stuck into the ports - I lost the foam plugs. What are some bottom ported speakers <$3-4K that will give me tight bass in the corners?

Radu