Prp2K writes:
>I am seeking advise/recommendations from the collective knowlege base on speakers for a 15X14 listening room. I'm moving and can't use my large rear ported speakers in such a small area. The new speakers will need to be say a foot off the back wall. Sealed enclosure better?
Ported or sealed, front port or rear port, it doesn't matter.
A 100Hz sound wave is 11' long. 50Hz 22' long. They wrap around your speaker like it wasn't there. In fact, the on-axis energy has dropped 50% by 380Hz for a foot wide speaker and 500Hz on a skinny 8" one.
Problems result where you use a speaker voiced for use away from the wall where the designer will have boosted the lower frequency output because they're expecting a smaller contribution from reflections off the front wall due to the added distance and less coherent addition.
If you change speakers you want in-wall speakers (they'll have fewer diffraction issues), on-wall speakers, or free standing speakers which at least have a boundary compensation switch like some revels.
Assuming you have at least a port diameters worth of clearance to avoid loading the port, you could also use your existing speakers and apply a line level shelving high-pass filter to compensate for the placement perhaps in the form of a room-correction unit.
Bass traps will be the best idea, although notch filters can tame things for a single listening position.
