How much clearance behind Emotiva B1+ bookshelf speaker

[JKCashin]

Was about to "install" a set of Emotiva B1+ speakers as my surrounds, and another set as my front heights... only to realize (as I should have known) that they are rear ported. Sigh.

So, I have two questions... first, if I choose to "install" them as described above, meaning placing them on shelves in the appropiate locations, what's the minimum rear clearance I would need to leave to account for the port.

The second question is could I just block the port and run them as sealed? Could this cause damage?

Jamie

[novisnick]

Aug 12, 2020 16:51:23 GMT -5 JKCashin said:

Was about to "install" a set of Emotiva B1+ speakers as my surrounds, and another set as my front heights... only to realize (as I should have known) that they are rear ported. Sigh.

So, I have two questions... first, if I choose to "install" them as described above, meaning placing them on shelves in the appropiate locations, what's the minimum rear clearance I would need to leave to account for the port.

The second question is could I just block the port and run them as sealed? Could this cause damage?

Jamie

I’m no authority on the matter but I’ve seen many speakers with port plugs. I see no reason why you couldn’t run them in that manner. Enjoy!  

[JKCashin]

I did some research... which I should have done before posting the question. So apparently completely blocking the port will result in a 12db/octave rolloff of the bass, as opposed to the typical 24db/octave on the ported unit... and will reduce overall bass... as I expected... but should not lead to any damage.

I did read one person say if you have paper cones and drive them too hard you will tear them apart if you're trying to extract the same bass from the blocked port setup as the open port setup, but i think that was speculative (pulled it out of his a$$ IMHO) but I put it here for completeness.

I will let you know how the experiment goes.