can a speaker grill be used over a port hole? (1 Viewer)

[Joe Meissner]

I am building a sub and want to know if a grill should (could) be used over the port hole.? i want the port to be on the front baffle above the driver. I could flip that but i dont want this thing to be top heavy with little kids.
my problem is a 3 year old daughter that loves to put toys any place she can find. (like the vcr)boy did that eat some tapes before i could figure it out. plus i have a 9 month old that will soon be at that stage. plus she is starting to pull her self up on everything in the house.
will doing this hurt the bass output? i just never see anyone doing this. thats why i am asking
Thanks

 

[Robert_Gaither]

SVS does it so I assume that it shouldn't hurt at all (of course you can make the port down firing and save a few bucks). The safest speaker for most kids is the sub (it's the only speaker I can think of that can't really fall on a child, at least none that I've seen; the sub safe from the kid... that's another story watch out for them poking it with objects pens, pencils, etc).

In another post (you stated about 3+ cubic feet, a driver than will most likely weigh more than 10 lbs, and you did state that you intend to use braces... I think you'll be lucky to keep the sub under 70 lbs and if you're kid can turn this over trust me she shouldn't be hurt by it) I think it was you that most of us were trying help design a sub trust me I seriously doubt that you're kid will get hurt by this sub unless you build it into the form of a slender tower with a top mounted woofer.

 

[Kerry Hackney]

SVS may have taken the loading into account. I have read articles that claim anything that obstructs the port loads it and changes the tuning. If you use a mesh grill the more open the better. I would not use a fine mesh or any type of cloth to cover a port... YMMV

 

[Patrick Sun]

You can lose up to 1dB of output with something porous that covers the port (but in the overall scheme of things, a little less output outweighs the possibility of getting stuff falling inside the enclosure).

 

[Kerry Hackney]

P@, you mean like a cat or something???

 

[Patrick Sun]

It makes feeding the cat much easier, just pour in the Kibbles-n-Bits down the port.

 

[Brian Bunge]

Pat's cats only sit on the drivers!

 

[Patrick Sun]

There's a first time for everything...but I doubt the cat can fit through a 4" wide flared port...

 

[Brian Bunge]

Actually, top mounted ports can be used to feed your woofers!

 

[jeff lam]

Try the blowing air method. When I got my grill for my sub I wondered the same thing. I blew air into my hand to test, then I tried blowing air through the grill and into my hand on the other side of the grill. I couldn't feel much difference and I haven't noticed any different sound with my grill on or off. I'm using the mesh 8" style grill from PE.

 

[Joe Meissner]

If she did get hurt maybe she'll learn not to mess with daddy's stuff.
thanks guys