Can you damage your speakers by plugging bass port vent?


HI All,

I have ProAc K6 Signature driven by AR Ref 150SE with AR Ref 5SE preamp....Unfortunately I am now staying in an apartment building - all concrete slab walls, ceilings etc.... Bass is just horrible... This is just a temporary arrangement and so I don't want to spend any moeny on acoustic treatments etc...  Will be moving to a house in about 9 to 10 months.... However, in the meantime, I was thinking to plug the bottom firings woofer port vent with some foam or fabric. But worry that this may cause all the energy to bouce back inside and....after several months...cause some damage to either the woofer or the speaker cabinets.... 

Is this something to worry about or would you say plugging the vent won't cause any issues....

PS: I would probably experiment with various materials, like cloth or foam or whatever.... to get the right balance.

THANK YOU !!

ether

A ported speaker will roll off at 24 dB/Octave below it’s tuning frequency. A sealed box rolls off at 12 DB/Octave, typically a half octave higher. An optimally tuned system that’s flat to 40Hz will be -24 dB at 20 Hz. The sealed box will be flat to 60 Hz, -12db at 30 Hz. Ported systems are harder ( but not impossible) to tune properly and so their reputation.for boomy ill-defined bass. Sealed boxes reputation is for tighter but ’slower’, less lively bass. It’s way more involved than just sealing the box. But if you understand the basics it makes what you hear so much more comprehensible.

Re panzrwagn - Closed box sound is dryer because it ends faster, has less overhang. It's more detailed because it stops more quickly. Speed of bass is really not the initial attack but how quickly it stops and closed boxes stop faster. It's just that the extra overhang of reflex boxes adds richness like amps with high second harmonics that people like despite being less accurate.

With modern programs there are good reflex loadings(albeit less good than good closed loading). If reflex bass is too boomy it's either incompetent design or often unfortunately achoice to make a speaker sound bassy because that sells in way too many cases.

All that bass energy, builds and builds and builds until suddenly, "KABOOM!!"

+1 dynamiclinearity. The "ported speakers have slow boomy bass" is a proverbial old wives tale.

@OP, with the K6 being ported through the bottom of the cabinet, I'm not sure that you will find an improvement overall - yes you can reduce the bass extension, but you will change the overall tuning of the loudspeaker and probably not in a good way. Personally, I've never found that plugging the ports in loudspeakers results in  net overall improvement.

You would be better spending some money on some bass trapping and some absorption for the first reflections. Acoustic treatment is cheap and you can still use it when you move somewhere more permanent.