Can one plug the ports on a ported cabinet and have it sound somewhat like a sealed cab or am I a complete idiot? Thanks?
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Would It Sound OK To Plug/Stuff Cabinet Ports?
- Thread starter XsoGol
- Start date
If you plug the ports, it will be a sealed cab. You'll lose a lot of low end, but it can be done.
Typically sealed cabs give up low end efficiencey but gain extension over ported cabs. This is due to the lower order roll off.
Most definately! You will probably perceive the reduction of low end gain as an INCREASE in mids and high end. Many people interperet this as articulation. IMO cutting the bass a bit on your amp will achieve the same results.
Yes. But all this talk about frequency response is only half the equation. You also have to consider what plugging the ports will do the the speaker's excursion characteristics. Often it causes the cab to fart out sooner. By all means give it a try, but make the port-blocking mods reversible in case it doesn't work out, and keep your ears peeled for distortion caused by over excursion.
A better alternative might be to keep the port but tune the cabinet lower.
Well here's my though...I'm going to take an Avatar 410 cab, turn the tweeter off, and stuff some rags in the ports...I've found that I like the sound in a band situation of sealed cabs with 10s in it. I can't really lengthen the ports of an existing cab, can I?
The Avatar is cheap and should tie me over until I can afford a Bergie NV610. I'd be running a GK 800RB on it.
That's one way to do it, but it's not easy to do on a cab with wooden shelf ports.
The other way to do it is to just block "some" of your ports. I'd start with blocking half of them.
Bear in mind your remaining ports are how passing air at a faster speed than previously. So make sure they're not "whistling" or making "chuffing" noises. It's rare but it does happen sometimes.
So Im looking into getting a NV610. I currently use either 2 GB Neox 212T cabs or 1 212T w/XB-2 410T cab. Now these cabs have tweeters and are def ported and I like the lows they throw. Am I going to lose that with a sealed cab?
I plug em on my ampeg 610. Just don't crank the bass eq back up to compensate for the reduction in low end. Could damage the drivers.
I've never heard the NV610, but I think you should be pretty safe given the cab was designed from the ground up to be a sealed cab.
Besides, sealed cabs don't automatically have less lows. It's true they generally start to roll off on the lows sooner than a ported cab. But the lows roll away at half the rate of a ported cab (12dB per octave roll-off for sealed, 24dB per octave roll-off for ported)
So the sealed cab might be -3dB at 90Hz compared to 60Hz for a similar the ported cab. That suggests the ported cab has more lows right? But what about the -12dB point? Both cabs are -12dB at 45Hz or thereabouts. At -24dB, the sealed cab has more lows than the ported one.
I guess you could say it not really a case of more/less lows, but it's a different kind of lows.
