Elac Floorstanders : Port Bungs (1 Viewer)

[JohnBAIL]

I have Elac 207.2 floorstanders (which are amazing speakers, by the way). What I'm not sure about is the port bungs. I have to have the speakers quite close to the rear wall, in a fairly small room, and without port bungs the bass is too dominating and sloppy. I need to bung the bass port. However, on these speakers (and I gather on some other speakers such as Monitor Audio) there are two bass ports, one near the top and the other near the bottom of the speaker. Does it matter which port I bung, or do they serve identical purposes?

Thanks.

 

[ChrisHeflen]

John, can't really help you with your question, but I was more curious as to where you got them.

 

[Anthony*B]

this post made me laugh so hard i almost spit out my lunch if it's not an April fool's joke, then please forgive me

 

[JohnBAIL]

Anthony - sadly, it's no April Fool's joke. I have no idea how a speaker is constructed and really don't know what the difference is between the two ports. Would you mind explaining it? (ps sorry for making you choke!)

Chris - I'm actually located in Australia and bought the speakers from Merlin (www.merlinaudiodesign.com.au). But that may not be much use to you!

Cheers

 

[JohnBAIL]

Anyone?

 

[Henry Lambert]

Hi John,
I think that you would have gotten more replies if you had referred to the bungs as port plugs.
I don't think that I have the knowledge to answer your question so take the following with a large serving of salt.
I don't think that it will make any difference which port you block. It may be better to block both ports. The ports are there to increase to bass output of your speakers, ie: bass reflex system. By blocking both ports you are changing to speakers to an acoustic suspension system or a sealed design. Blocking both ports may clean up your bass response at the expense of some output. In my opinion if you only block one of the ports you may have a problem with port noise. The back wave from the woofer exits through the ports augmenting the bass output of the speaker. The back wave is just as powerful as the output from the front of the woofer. This means that with one port plugged you will have twice the amount of air forced out of the open port for a given spl level. This turbulent flow may be audible.
Another consideration is the structural design of the speaker enclosure. Blocking the ports increases the internal pressures on the enclosure. This could cause the enclosure to resonate and degrade the speakers performance.
The speaker company chose a ported design for a reason. Maybe you should ask your dealer for his opinion on this. I would hope that the dealer knows the product he sells better that most would.
I hope that I did not cause you to much confusion. Hopefully some one with more knowledge will respond. There are a lot of highly intelligent people on this site.
Hope thinks work out for you John.

 

[Henry Lambert]

Hi John,
I just took a look at the Elac website. Those are some nice looking speakers. Hope you get them to preform up to their full potential.

 

[Dustin B]

Two ports behave the same as one larger port. As you decrease the amount of cross sectional area of a port but maintain the length, two things will happen. As mentioned above, port air speed will increase for a given spl level. Second the tuning frequency (or the point at which the port provides maximum output) will go down.

Without good measurements theory won't do you much. I suggest trying all three configurations and which ever one you think sounds best, use.

 

[JohnBAIL]

Thanks for the replies. With one port blocked, I can position the speakers right against the wall without the bass becoming boomy. It sounds like it won't make much difference which port I plug, though I might just experiment to see if there is any difference. Thanks again.