Volume on Front & Rear Ported and Sealed Cabinets

[Smallmouth_Bass]

When directly in front of a bass speaker cabinet, does the porting (or lack thereof) affect the volume you hear? In other words, does a front ported bass cabinet sound louder than its counterparts? Or is it increased bass response?

 

[agedhorse]

Porting changed how the speaker interacts with the cabinet (and external) air mass and cabinet resonance.

Front/rear porting doesn't really change this unless the rear cabinet is too close to the wall (interfering with the tuning). There are some other smaller differences, but they are really byproducts rather than root causes.

 

[ravlin]

2 week zombie refresh. Is there a general rule of thumb for volume difference between sealed and ported cabs?

 

[6thplanet]

Nope

 

[agedhorse]

2 week zombie refresh. Is there a general rule of thumb for volume difference between sealed and ported cabs?

Depends on the cabinet, but generally the volume difference is restricted to below 200Hz and the ported cabinet will generally have an advantage here. How much depends entirely on the speakers being compared.

 

[ravlin]

Depends on the cabinet, but generally the volume difference is restricted to below 200Hz and the ported cabinet will generally have an advantage here. How much depends entirely on the speakers being compared.

Thanks so much, that nuance is exactly what I was looking for.