• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

rubber mat ?

Originally posted by CrawlingEye


This has been mentioned many times.
Your port placement doesn't affect your sound.

If you don't believe me, go look on acme's site, they have an article, regarding port placement, and how it makes no difference where the port is.

My personal experience tells me otherwise.
remember.. i'm an atheist.. i don't trust articles.. i need to see it for myself. ;)
 
aaah... i don't want to jump into this argument... but maybe i can help settle it before problems start....

port placement doesnt matter if you're playing outdoors with open air in every direction....

it can make a difference when the real world comes into play... floors, walls, putting your amp in a corner, the amount of people in the room (people tend to absorb sound better than concrete floors), and port placement all will factor in to your sound in a real world situation.

this has been my experience and what i've learned on talkbass.. i'm only trying to help... no flames please.
 
Originally posted by AllodoX


My personal experience tells me otherwise.
remember.. i'm an atheist.. i don't trust articles.. i need to see it for myself. ;)


If you're atheist, you're going against your grain. ;)
You then should believe what's a scientific fact, and not all the gossip.


In response to falsehood bassists comment...
Where the port is holds little merit on how it sounds.
It's just a matter of having the port unblocked, so air can move in/out freely.

It may make it easier to place your cabinet so the port's not blocked if it's front ported, but that's not really something that would fit in the context of this sub-debate. :)
 
Originally posted by FalsehoodBass


port placement doesnt matter if you're playing outdoors with open air in every direction....

it can make a difference when the real world comes into play... floors, walls, putting your amp in a corner, the amount of people in the room (people tend to absorb sound better than concrete floors), and port placement all will factor in to your sound in a real world situation.

this has been my experience and what i've learned on talkbass.. i'm only trying to help... no flames please.


I'm not aiming to flame anyone:D. I don't think the other participants want that either. I think we're all grown up enough to have a debate without resorting to flames and petty personal attacks. (I hope so:D).

Anyway, everything you said above is correct
except the port placement thing. It really doesn't make any palpable difference. Think about it, most port tuning frequencies are between 30 and 60Hz. These frequencies are practically omnidirectional. We're talking wavelengths on the order of 5.5-11 Meters (about 16-36 feet). You would need one hell of a horn to give them any directional characteristics. A couple of inches (or even feet) difference in port placement isn't going to make any difference. I've had extensive practical and theoretical experience with this. The literature, results from sophisticated measurement equipment (Meyer SIM system, JBL Smaart pro) and a boatload of practical experience (8 years in high end sound reinforcement, over 1000 gigs) all tell me that port placement on a cabinet don't make any difference. As for the rubber mat (the main topic of this thread) I'll be trying that soon to see what happens.....:D
 
ok thanks for the flame-free, educated response...
sorry to digress from the rubber mat thing.... but more questions from the physics major.....

ok so port location doesn't matter with an 11 meter wave, but what about direction? A rear port facing a wall that the cab is backed into is going to sound different than a front ported cab that's unubstructed, no?
 
If the port is free from physical obstruction: at least the space of one port diameter (or so) it won't make much difference which direction the port faces. Certainly not audible at any rate. The waveforms at those low freqs will propogate (sp?) pretty much equally in all directions, with maybe a bit of directionality provided by the speakers themselves. A front ported box will boundary load the same as a rear ported one when placed near a wall. Of course, as long as you're far enough away not to physically impair the operation of the port.
 
One important thing to remember is that higher frequencies can come out the port too. Mostly it is the low frequencies (<60Hz at least) coming out, which are omnidirectional so it doesn't matter what direction it faces.

With rear-ported cabs, enough of the back wave higher frequencies come out through the ports that it can have effects: drummer hears you better (if the amp is in front of him), reflections muddy up the sound, etc.

Granted, mid-bass frequencies won't travel through the port easily, and higher frequencies that go straight through aren't as common in bass signals. BUT it seems to still play a little role in things.

This is from someone who used to belong to the "if you think port placement makes a difference you're smoking crack" club. :)