Front ported floorstanders vs rear ported standmounters

[busb]

It makes no difference whether the port is on the front or on the rear of the speaker, one of hi-fi's biggest current myths.

Bass performence is all about the design of the speaker and the way it interacts with the room. Big floor standing speakers will, almost always, have more bass, it is expected, so provided.

Secondly, and this is from experience, the better the amplifier, the better the control and the tighter the bass. This is not to be under estimated.

Forgive the pun but this is a pretty sound observation. I would add that seating position is equally important & if you can touch a wall with the back of your head, you'll nearly always suffer from unwanted room modes. If you can setup your room with plenty of free space behind you chair/sofa - do so.

I have gone from very small 2 way/twin driver floorstanders (Totem Arros) to much larger Quadrel Chromium 8 floorstanders (both rear ported with the Quadrel's being 3 way/4 driver) & now have much better bass with less boom from my Quadrerls with much more treble that's also very smooth). I live in a flat with wooden floorboards with the speakers firing out of recesses split by a fireplace so the room is not perfect.

Very nice speakers those Quadrals by all accounts. I think we can thank the home cinema brigade for most speaker manufacturers now realising their speakers are likely to be used close to rear walls and designing them with this in mind.

A friend had a pair of Gradient speakers that only worked hard up against a wall. Such speakers are now called near-field or studio monitors? Interestingly, although I was never that struck by these Gradients, they weren't boxy (were open frame). As for non-ported or infinite baffle speakers, the only ones I,ve owned were Celestion SL6s & the only contemporary ones I've heard were a pair of Naim Ovator S400s.

No, they are not, you are getting your terminology mixed up.

Speakers designed to go close to a wall are simply balanced to take account of the enhanced bass such positioning will generate. This tends to involve other compromises which will or will not be acceptable depending on circumstances and the users preference.

Real nearfield monitors are balanced to be used up close, so that the listener really only hears the direct sound from the speaker, not the reflections in the room(ie, is in the 'near field'). Since these reflexions are most obvious in the bass region (room gain) such speakers will generally be balanced to have more bass to make up for the lack of room gain.

In the real (pro and semi-pro) world, nearfield monitors are used up close as room treatment is often minimal and because they do not go loud enough to be used at a distance. They often have bass adjustment, allowing a degree of flexibility with regard to positioning.

From personal experience I find that when used for hi-fi at normal distances, they work fine, my preference for a tight bass means that the bass adjustments are usually at the lowest settings.

Thanks for the clarification Dave. These Gradients my friend had did image quite well so they may have dispelled another myth that being close to a wall diminishes the sound stage.

 

[davedotco]

It makes no difference whether the port is on the front or on the rear of the speaker, one of hi-fi's biggest current myths.

Bass performence is all about the design of the speaker and the way it interacts with the room. Big floor standing speakers will, almost always, have more bass, it is expected, so provided.

Secondly, and this is from experience, the better the amplifier, the better the control and the tighter the bass. This is not to be under estimated.

Forgive the pun but this is a pretty sound observation. I would add that seating position is equally important & if you can touch a wall with the back of your head, you'll nearly always suffer from unwanted room modes. If you can setup your room with plenty of free space behind you chair/sofa - do so.

I have gone from very small 2 way/twin driver floorstanders (Totem Arros) to much larger Quadrel Chromium 8 floorstanders (both rear ported with the Quadrel's being 3 way/4 driver) & now have much better bass with less boom from my Quadrerls with much more treble that's also very smooth). I live in a flat with wooden floorboards with the speakers firing out of recesses split by a fireplace so the room is not perfect.

Very nice speakers those Quadrals by all accounts. I think we can thank the home cinema brigade for most speaker manufacturers now realising their speakers are likely to be used close to rear walls and designing them with this in mind.

A friend had a pair of Gradient speakers that only worked hard up against a wall. Such speakers are now called near-field or studio monitors? Interestingly, although I was never that struck by these Gradients, they weren't boxy (were open frame). As for non-ported or infinite baffle speakers, the only ones I,ve owned were Celestion SL6s & the only contemporary ones I've heard were a pair of Naim Ovator S400s.

No, they are not, you are getting your terminology mixed up.

Speakers designed to go close to a wall are simply balanced to take account of the enhanced bass such positioning will generate. This tends to involve other compromises which will or will not be acceptable depending on circumstances and the users preference.

Real nearfield monitors are balanced to be used up close, so that the listener really only hears the direct sound from the speaker, not the reflections in the room(ie, is in the 'near field'). Since these reflexions are most obvious in the bass region (room gain) such speakers will generally be balanced to have more bass to make up for the lack of room gain.

In the real (pro and semi-pro) world, nearfield monitors are used up close as room treatment is often minimal and because they do not go loud enough to be used at a distance. They often have bass adjustment, allowing a degree of flexibility with regard to positioning.

From personal experience I find that when used for hi-fi at normal distances, they work fine, my preference for a tight bass means that the bass adjustments are usually at the lowest settings.

Thanks for the clarification Dave. These Gradients my friend had did image quite well so they may have dispelled another myth that being close to a wall diminishes the sound stage.

Over the years, most speakers that are designed to go tight to a wall, have compromised image depth but as you say, perhaps it is not inherent in the design.

The use of boundary reinforcement to enhance bass response is as old as hi-fi and is all about balancing the direct frequency response with the overall power response.

This can get quite complex but in essence it is a function of dispersion over the range of audio frequencies. Bass is virtually omnidirectional, high frequencies very directional so if you were to feed a speaker with a signal that sounds/measures balanced in free space it will be bass heavy against a wall.

This is complicated by the way sound is reflected in the listening room, at normal listening distances you are in the 'far field', most of what your ear receives is reflected, but the ear places a priority on the 'first' signal, ie sound direct from the speaker. It is this that enables us to experience a stereo image.

Determining just hom much sound is direct and how much is reflected is a big part of the speaker designers art, from highly directional horn loading to near omnidirectional designs.

 

[Al ears]

It makes no difference whether the port is on the front or on the rear of the speaker, one of hi-fi's biggest current myths.

Bass performence is all about the design of the speaker and the way it interacts with the room. Big floor standing speakers will, almost always, have more bass, it is expected, so provided.

Secondly, and this is from experience, the better the amplifier, the better the control and the tighter the bass. This is not to be under estimated.

Forgive the pun but this is a pretty sound observation. I would add that seating position is equally important & if you can touch a wall with the back of your head, you'll nearly always suffer from unwanted room modes. If you can setup your room with plenty of free space behind you chair/sofa - do so.

I have gone from very small 2 way/twin driver floorstanders (Totem Arros) to much larger Quadrel Chromium 8 floorstanders (both rear ported with the Quadrel's being 3 way/4 driver) & now have much better bass with less boom from my Quadrerls with much more treble that's also very smooth). I live in a flat with wooden floorboards with the speakers firing out of recesses split by a fireplace so the room is not perfect.

Very nice speakers those Quadrals by all accounts. I think we can thank the home cinema brigade for most speaker manufacturers now realising their speakers are likely to be used close to rear walls and designing them with this in mind.

A friend had a pair of Gradient speakers that only worked hard up against a wall. Such speakers are now called near-field or studio monitors? Interestingly, although I was never that struck by these Gradients, they weren't boxy (were open frame). As for non-ported or infinite baffle speakers, the only ones I,ve owned were Celestion SL6s & the only contemporary ones I've heard were a pair of Naim Ovator S400s.

No, they are not, you are getting your terminology mixed up.

Speakers designed to go close to a wall are simply balanced to take account of the enhanced bass such positioning will generate. This tends to involve other compromises which will or will not be acceptable depending on circumstances and the users preference.

Real nearfield monitors are balanced to be used up close, so that the listener really only hears the direct sound from the speaker, not the reflections in the room(ie, is in the 'near field'). Since these reflexions are most obvious in the bass region (room gain) such speakers will generally be balanced to have more bass to make up for the lack of room gain.

In the real (pro and semi-pro) world, nearfield monitors are used up close as room treatment is often minimal and because they do not go loud enough to be used at a distance. They often have bass adjustment, allowing a degree of flexibility with regard to positioning.

From personal experience I find that when used for hi-fi at normal distances, they work fine, my preference for a tight bass means that the bass adjustments are usually at the lowest settings.

Thanks for the clarification Dave. These Gradients my friend had did image quite well so they may have dispelled another myth that being close to a wall diminishes the sound stage.

Over the years, most speakers that are designed to go tight to a wall, have compromised image depth but as you say, perhaps it is not inherent in the design.

The use of boundary reinforcement to enhance bass response is as old as hi-fi and is all about balancing the direct frequency response with the overall power response.

This can get quite complex but in essence it is a function of dispersion over the range of audio frequencies. Bass is virtually omnidirectional, high frequencies very directional so if you were to feed a speaker with a signal that sounds/measures balanced in free space it will be bass heavy against a wall.

This is complicated by the way sound is reflected in the listening room, at normal listening distances you are in the 'far field', most of what your ear receives is reflected, but the ear places a priority on the 'first' signal, ie sound direct from the speaker. It is this that enables us to experience a stereo image.

Determining just hom much sound is direct and how much is reflected is a big part of the speaker designers art, from highly directional horn loading to near omnidirectional designs.

Quite so. I think also that the major players seem to understand that the majority of sales, especially in the US, are being employed both as stereo and home cinema speakers so they are designing them to work better when closer together than would normally be deemed optimal. Quite a few people will be positioning them either side of tv screens so, in reality, quite close together. This in itself would help positioning in our smaller than average UK rooms.