Front Ported v. Rear Ported Speakers

Read This!

http://www.stereophile.com/content/fifth-element-35-25-cheers-sealed-boxes

If I plug the ports on a ported speaker, will that change the sound characteristics to be more like that of a sealed box? Or is it not advisable because of all the other design considerations, i.e. cabinet shape, crossover, woofer attachment and etc.?

This kind of makes sense now that I think about it. These trade offs must have been at the heart (or close to it) of the design philosophy of M&K; sealed boxes in combination with a sub and bass management. Perhaps it isn't surprising that my search of a replacement for my S-85s includes the NHT Classic Three, also a sealed box.

Don_c55, thanks for posting the link.

FWIW, I plugged my ports (EgglestonWorks Fontaines, dual rear ports) and raised the crossover points on my subs. It did seem to improve the clarity of the upper mids and HFs somewhat, but I lost too much of the "meat" of the sound to keep them this way. After all, they were specifically designed to operate with open ports. I suspect any critically designed speaker with ports would sound better left open, as intended. My unscientific $.02. As always, try it yourself and see. It is a free and easily reversed tweak, unless you stuff too far and your socks (or whatever) fall inside.

Thanks Rockadanny for sharing your experience. I think I might give it a try and play around with plugging the ports. I think I'm also going to purchase a couple room treatment panels and play around with them too.

In general, front ports should do better closer to walls in theory, but a lot regarding best sound in any case depends on room acoustics and other factors case by case. So its quite possible in some cases rear porting could work best.

The most common truism about speakers is that soundstage depth is almost inevitably compromised when placed closer to the front wall. Second most common is that bass levels will usually be higher as well.

So you can see that specifics case by case will determine what works best, even if certain general trends apply.

Also most good ported speakers are designed to work best in general with ports open to extent designed, but again, obstructing port to various degrees can be a useful tweak in some cases nonetheless.

BEst to make decisions based on what you or some other knowledgable resource most familiar with your situation thinks, will work best in general, but be prepared to think our of the box as needed from there in order to get best results.