Front ported or rear ported ?

[far0n]

Can anyone give me some idea of what difference in sound there will be between a front ported cabinet and rear one ? Do front ported cabs throw the sound further ?

I own a very nice Markbass stack at the moment, all the cabs are rear ported. Sounds great when you're stood next to it, but disappears when you stand more than 8 feet away. On the other hand I have a nice Eden D410XLT that I could stand half a mile away from and it'd be clear as a bell. Trouble is it weighs twice what the markbass ones do

[Hamster]

Have a read through this, [url="http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/"]http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/[/url] and then the site's forums, [url="http://billfitzmaurice.com/phpBB2/"]http://billfitzmaurice.com/phpBB2/[/url].

AFAIK, Bill doesn't design cabs with rear ports.

Hamster

[wateroftyne]

Some people will tell you it shouldn't, in theory, make a difference.

The reality is a lot different if you're wedged into a tiny space at the back of a pub room, etc.

I prefer front ported.

[obbm]

If you are in a confined space with a solid wall behind you the rear ported is great, but if you are in the middle of a large stage or out of doors, then forget it. Your low end just evaporates on the breeze.

[nedsbeds]

[quote name='Hamster' post='83312' date='Nov 3 2007, 10:05 PM']Have a read through this, [url="http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/"][url="http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/"]http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/[/url][/url] and then the site's forums, [url="http://billfitzmaurice.com/phpBB2/"][url="http://billfitzmaurice.com/phpBB2/"]http://billfitzmaurice.com/phpBB2/[/url][/url].

AFAIK, Bill doesn't design cabs with rear ports.

Hamster[/quote]

nor does he design direct radiators though!

[synaesthesia]

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='83315' date='Nov 3 2007, 10:20 PM']Some people will tell you it shouldn't, in theory, make a difference.

The reality is a lot different if you're wedged into a tiny space at the back of a pub room, etc.

I prefer front ported.[/quote]

Sub 100hz, it is largely omnidirectional. But if you place a cabinet in a corner or against walls, then you'd get some acoustic coupling, and you'd get coupling of the cab and what audio it produces, not just the ports.

You'd get acoustic coupling even with a cab without ports.

Whether you'd like the results and whether you can exercise any control over it, should be what is in question here.

I can safely say that I have played enough places to say that port position is not as important as having some form of audio control over how your loudspeaker cabinet or cabinets will behave given the various rooms, walls, tents, boats, hollow floors, grass and pebbled surfaces, mud flats, floating barges, flower beds, topiary, stone canyons etc......

Edited November 3, 2007 by synaesthesia

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

[quote name='nedsbeds' post='83325' date='Nov 3 2007, 05:46 PM']nor does he design direct radiators though![/quote]
Actually, I do, but mainly those are home theater line arrays. As to the location of the port, its location makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. The frequencies radiated from the port do so in a completely omnidirectional pattern, so it makes no difference which way the port faces. Rear ports and walls are only problematic if you slam the cab flush against the wall and seal the resulting joint airtight.

[far0n]

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='83533' date='Nov 4 2007, 02:43 PM']Actually, I do, but mainly those are home theater line arrays. As to the location of the port, its location makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. The frequencies radiated from the port do so in a completely omnidirectional pattern, so it makes no difference which way the port faces. Rear ports and walls are only problematic if you slam the cab flush against the wall and seal the resulting joint airtight.[/quote]

Right ok, so if that's the case why would Markbass manufacture the same cabs but in rear and front ported formats ? Seems a bit odd to me !

[wateroftyne]

Rear port models are smaller, perhaps?

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

[quote name='far0n' post='83557' date='Nov 4 2007, 10:49 AM']Right ok, so if that's the case why would Markbass manufacture the same cabs but in rear and front ported formats ? Seems a bit odd to me ![/quote]
The internal volumes of the cabs are different, the rear ported being smaller. The ports were put on the rear as they wouldn't fit on the front. Response of the larger cabs is better in the low end, because they are larger, not because of the port location.