Ported 810 cab vs. sealed

[biggredd]

Thoughts or opinions?

[chubrocker]

I currently have both, prolly keep both. It's a matter of taste IMO. For tube amps, most prefer sealed. For SS, it seems either works fine but more prefer ported.

[gnjpowell]

IME ported can get muddy and sloppy, cannot handle as much power Vs sealed. Sealed helps to keep driver excursion better under control and provide more power handling. Datapoint: The Ampeg SVT-810 is sealed. For a reason...

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by gnjpowell

IME ported can get muddy and sloppy, cannot handle as much power Vs sealed. Sealed helps to keep driver excursion better under control and provide more power handling. Datapoint: The Ampeg SVT-810 is sealed. For a reason...

Power handling and tone has nothing to do with ported versus sealed. Sealed doesn't control excursion better than ported; in fact, the excursion in a ported cab is at a minimum at the tuning frequency, and using the same drivers will handle more power than sealed. The SVT is sealed because it dates to 1969, and the drivers it was designed to operate with, 30 watt guitar drivers, worked no better in a vented cab than a sealed cab.

OP, there is no valid engineering reason to choose one over the other. There's only personal preference. Not all sealed or vented cabs sound alike either, so it boils down to try and then buy.

[staindbass]

i dont like ported cabs. yeah the are louder but when the band is playing the more defined sound helps me separate it from the rest of the noise. i know with the damping factor controlling the cone there isnt supposed to be much difference, but i always hear it. the low end seems to start and stop quicker, and with the ports being out of phase with the driver, you add a third variable to all the hot and dead spots due to phasing onstage between your rig and the pa.

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by staindbass

with the ports being out of phase with the driver

They aren't. Not within the speaker pass band, at any rate.

[staindbass]

isnt there no excursion control below the port tuning? i agree with the try before you buy rule, that more important than my opinions.

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by staindbass

isnt there no excursion control below the port tuning?

There is, though it does rise quickly. But unless the cab is tuned defectively high it doesn't matter. For instance, the SVT driver in a ported cab with 40Hz tuning will still have 10dB more output at 32Hz than in a sealed cab. The sealed doesn't have any excursion advantage above 19Hz.

[Dustin Teel]

In my experience (which isn't much) ported cabs tend to have more usable lower frequencies and sound naturally "lower" or bassier.

As far as just tone, I have generally preferred every sealed cab I have used vs. a ported cab.

[whocaresnotme]

Damn!! Along with fearful and phasing and vertical vs horizontal 2 vs 4 vs 8 and Neo, tube vs SS etc, etc, I now have to worry about ported vs sealed? I think I will start playing oboe.

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by Dustin Teel

As far as just tone, I have generally preferred every sealed cab I have used vs. a ported cab.

IME most ported cabs are tuned too high. That makes them sound louder on the showroom floor, and louder subjectively seems better...until you get them in a real band environment. It's not that sealed cabs have any more of anything, they don't, it's that ported cabs can have too much midbass, the result of high tuning. Lower tuning solves most, if not all, the tone complaints associated with ported cabs.

[ulynch]

Originally Posted by whocaresnotme

Damn!! Along with fearful and phasing and vertical vs horizontal 2 vs 4 vs 8 and Neo, tube vs SS etc, etc, I now have to worry about ported vs sealed? I think I will start playing oboe.

Really!? Natural or synthetic reed?