Hypothetical cabinet port question

[Phil Smith]

If I had a cab that had a round port on the back of the cab, what would happen if one used an external prosthetic device to direct the air from the port to the front of the cab. How would that effect the sound? If said cab were "boomy" in certain rooms, would this alleviate that or just have no effect at all?

[Bass_Pounder]

Port placement has absolutely no effect.

Front, rear, top, side - no difference.

Just don't place a rear ported cab to close to wall, and it will sound no different then a front ported.

[GrowlerBox]

As Bass Pounder said, no difference between front and rear ports -- these emit only non-directional frequencies. Putting a "prosthetic device" over a port to redirect it would have the effect of significantly changing the port's dimensions and would have a marked effect on the cab's tone, almost certainly for the worse.

[Mr. Foxen]

Lengthening the port could help boomyness, by lower the tuning, but it wouldn't be to do with direction, just by cutting some lows (and raising some other lows).

[will33]

+1 to everyone.

The ports size and length is what tunes the box. Adding to it would essentially make it longer by a large margin thus throwing off the box tuning and not making it and the driver work as a team anymore. With an excessively boomy sounding cab, lengthening the port (lowering tuning) can help with that but something like you're describing would be way too much.....talking like a couple inches here. Although it may give an enticing visual effect to see a prosthetic limb with a giant foot on it kicking ass towards the crowd.

Frequencies produced by ports are omnidirectional, it doesn't matter where you place them. If it's in the back, just don't shove it right up against a wall, leave about 6" clearance and it'll be fine. If you put it really close to the wall it can either choke off the port opening, or make the wall serve as an extension of the port, throwing off the tuning either way.