speakers: sealed vs. ported

[hcsunshine90]

was wondering what the main difference between sealed designs and ported designs are. say one speaker company put out two versions of a speaker. one was sealed and one was ported. they both have the same tweeter and the same woofer, but the only difference is that one has a sealed cabinet and the other has a ported cabinet, what is the main difference between the two? i know the ported version would probably have better bass response, but was really wondering what the advantage of the sealed version would be. i was told once but i forgot. it had something to do with how the woofer moves. thanks in advance for all your responses. john

[garbulky]

I think basically the sealed version has a clearer response all things being equal - which is the sticking point - equal.

[knucklehead]

Some bookshelf speakers come ported and include a bung to plug the port should the owner desire it. A sealed design will usually take more power to produce the same low end response. I've owned both designs over the years. The Airmotiv6's that I'm currently using for mains are ported and have very articulate bass response all the way down to 40hz. IMO ported vs sealed isn't the question/problem - design is everything when it comes to bass response. Some of the best speakers in the world are ported - some of them are sealed.

[yves]

The advantage of a ported or bass reflex design is that a deeper and more impactful bass can be achieved without the need to increase the size and weight of both the woofer and the cabinet. The material cost can therefore be significantly lower, and the reduced size and weight of the speaker allows for easier handling and transportation / can better fit aesthetically in an interior space / decoration. In addition, it should be noted that smaller diameter woofers have better dispersion, as sound waves that originate from the left side of the woofer cone do not travel to the listener's ears via the same path as ones that originate from the right side of the cone. However, sophisticated cabinet design is important to suppress cabinet resonances in a ported speaker, and additional design care has to be taken to control port resonance and to reduce unwanted sounds that result from friction as compressed air moves through the port. There is also some phase delay in the lower part of the bass output due to the time it takes for output of the woofer reflected inside the cabinet to build up pressure and exit the port, but human hearing is fairly tolerant of delay in the lower part of the bass spectrum. The woofer, the crossover, the cabinet, and the port, all must be tuned to eachother for optimum performance. It is a complex design, meaning, it is difficult to implement in a 3-way speaker, which is already complex. Most commercial modern High End speakers are ported.

[bub]

Hey John.. According to Jeff Joseph in review of his new Perspective that comes with a liner.." with the liner in place, the Perspective will have the best bass articulation , the best bass extension and clarity. The option of pulling out the liner will lift up the bass and allow it to fill a much larger space then you would expect. " He goes on to say " in most listening situations , having the foam in the port will be what I prefer to hear....July issue. Sterophile... That's not quite the same as sealed vs ported but it is the same speaker with a reduced port.,
I initially quoted him because I thought you had the same woofer (seas) but I now see you have the Scan-Speak Illuminator woofer..I would ask Rick Craig the difference between the sealed and ported version of your speaker. I know he suggest using a sub with the sealed version .

[vcautokid]

I heard one engineer say we fight hard to make the most inert, strong cabinet we can, only to cut a hole in it! Well when I first heard that, I thought, not a good thing, but there are allot of bass reflex designs that are delight to listen too, I won't go into which correct, too many people who know more, and are smarter than me, but at the end of the day, when done well, like the Airmotiv's and the Stealths to name 2 examples, it is a great listen. I heard some bass reflex that made made me want to go go back to acoustic suspension or infinite baffle designs. But when done right, and musically engaging my vote is for the Bass reflex design.

[lionear]

Aug 24, 2014 19:53:21 GMT -5 vcautokid said:

I heard one engineer say we fight hard to make the most inert, strong cabinet we can, only to cut a hole in it! Well when I first heard that, I thought, not a good thing, but there are allot of bass reflex designs that are delight to listen too, I won't go into which correct, too many people who know more, and are smarter than me, but at the end of the day, when done well, like the Airmotiv's and the Stealths to name 2 examples, it is a great listen. I heard some bass reflex that made made me want to go go back to acoustic suspension or infinite baffle designs. But when done right, and musically engaging my vote is for the Bass reflex design.

I agree.  It's got to be very, very hard for the enclosure to stay rigid.  Getting that energy out quickly via a port seems to be a better approach.  But execution is everything.

By the way, there are some designs where the port is in the rear, directly behind the tweeter.  Is this so that some of the high frequencies come out of the port, too - to get some of the benefits of a rear-firing tweeter without having one?  I believe this started with the Wilson Audio Tiny Tot.