Front, rear or down firing ports?

[mattsk8]

I was just curious if someone could take a moment to explain the benefits of porting a speaker from the front, rear or bottom? I'm asking because I'm building a pair of Statements and was planning on going w/ the rear port but changed my mind because they will probably be close to a wall and figured a down firing port would be better in this scenario.

I heard that down firing ports tend to cause frequencies to bounce off eachother and cancel themselves out (I think it's unsupported but I don't know the guy that told me that very well). This was what got me questioning where to put the port and why I was going to do it that way !

I guess to simplify the question, if you were building statements, would you go w/ the rear or down firing port and why would you choose that location? Thanks in advance for any help!!!

[craigk]

i do not know why, and will not try to come up with an explanation. i have owned at least 40 pairs of speakers and one thing that i have noticed is that front ported speakers sound " more correct " usually. just my 2 cents worth.

[Face]

Matt, Statements shouldn't be placed near the rear wall, period.

As for more on front vs. rear port: http://techtalk.parts-express.com/sh...highlight=port

[madmac]

"If you set a man on fire...he'll be warm for the rest of his life"......Hehehehe......he'll also shortly be cold and dead !!!.

I heard a set of speakers that ported and fired down and at the time, I thought they sounded nice. Bass is not super directional so a down firing port sounds like a good ideal to me. It also keeps the bass away from the forward firing drivers which is good in my opinion!.

[mattsk8]

Matt, Statements shouldn't be placed near the rear wall, period.

As for more on front vs. rear port: http://techtalk.parts-express.com/sh...highlight=port

Thanks to all for the replys :T !

What's the ideal spot as far as placement goes for statements? I'm building these for my dad to put in his rec room. He's going to listen to music w/ them, no theater in the room at all. Mostly be listened to while shooting pool and what not and my dad's one to put the speakers right against the wall, kinda pigeon toed in. I'll tell him that's not a good idea but where is the ideal placement in a room for said application?

I'm guessing bottom firing just because that's the way Jim designed these? I wanted rear because it would give me more room in the base of the cabinets for crossover mounting, but not a big deal cuz I can mount the crossovers to the walls in the base of the cabinets then put the port in. I'm assuming the bottom mount would give you more options as far as speaker placement; but that's not substantiated by anything but my opinion!

[yzracer14]

http://speakerdesignworks.com/Statements.html

18" off the wall. That means that the distance to the wall from the back of the speaker is 18", not from the front baffle. It also needs room to breathe on either side of the Statements.

Do you happen to have room dimensions?

[cjd]

The lower the tuning frequency the less directional the sound may be, but most ports aren't *that* picky. Down-firing is the only potential trouble-spot (or rear-firing and almost on-wall placement) where you get the port firing into a surface, and the space between the box and the surface effectively lengthen the port. A front-firing port is, as a result, the "safest" option.



For the way it sounds like your dad will use the speakers, the Khanspire may be a better fit. They're far less picky about placement by design, so two steps closer to your stated probable use vs even just one for a "normal" speaker that prefers being out in the room with space to breathe.

I'm pretty sure Jim is very specific about how far out from any walls the Statements need to be. I recall there being a modified crossover available for the Statement Monitors allowing the rear-to-wall distance to be reduced to 12 inches, so the rest need more.

[Jim Holtz]

Chris (CJD) is spot on. The Statements are not a good choice for close wall positioning and they're designed to point straight ahead rather than toed in. The Kahnspires are an excellent design that better fit your Dad's requirements than the Statements.

Jim

[mattsk8]

Unfortunately as far as the Kahnspires go I'm already neck deep in the Statements build. I already have all the components to build em and most of the cabinet work done. I will check these out just cuz I'm curious and as much as I absolutely love building speakers, these surely won't be my last! I actually already have a pair purchased to build for myself as well but not Statements.

As far as room dimensions go, the room is 18' x 24'. I don't think putting the speakers 18" away from the wall is out of the question and I'll tell him not to put them pigeon toed, but straight out. So based on that, how far from their opposing walls should they be? What I mean is, if they were to go on the 18' wall, how far from the corners should each speaker be placed? I guess addiontally, would the 18' wall or the 24' wall be the most ideal spot for these? Now's the best time to ask these questions cuz he's not even done w/ his rec room addition so he can lay it out accordingly!

Thanks to all for the replies!! I can't wait to hear these! This is my 2nd build (actually have a thread on this site for it). First was a pair of Tritrix MTM, those got my feet wet and seems to have incurred quite an addiction!!

[Jim Holtz]

Unfortunately as far as the Kahnspires go I'm already neck deep in the Statements build. I already have all the components to build em and most of the cabinet work done. I will check these out just cuz I'm curious and as much as I absolutely love building speakers, these surely won't be my last! I actually already have a pair purchased to build for myself as well but not Statements.

As far as room dimensions go, the room is 18' x 24'. I don't think putting the speakers 18" away from the wall is out of the question and I'll tell him not to put them pigeon toed, but straight out. So based on that, how far from their opposing walls should they be? What I mean is, if they were to go on the 18' wall, how far from the corners should each speaker be placed? I guess addiontally, would the 18' wall or the 24' wall be the most ideal spot for these? Now's the best time to ask these questions cuz he's not even done w/ his rec room addition so he can lay it out accordingly!

Thanks to all for the replies!! I can't wait to hear these! This is my 2nd build (actually have a thread on this site for it). First was a pair of Tritrix MTM, those got my feet wet and seems to have incurred quite an addiction!!

Ok, you should be fine. Either wall will work fine as long as you spread them apart 8' - 12' and position them at least 18" from the wall behind the speakers.

While they sound excellent walking around, like all speakers, seated in the center is the premium listening position. I hope your Dad hooks some good electronics up to drive them and sits down for a good listen.

BTW, don't position them so one speaker is jammed close to the side wall. Give it at least 3' or more to breathe since you have the space.

Jim

[mattsk8]

Ok, you should be fine. Either wall will work fine as long as you spread them apart 8' - 12' and position them at least 18" from the wall behind the speakers.

While they sound excellent walking around, like all speakers, seated in the center is the premium listening position. I hope your Dad hooks some good electronics up to drive them and sits down for a good listen.

BTW, don't position them so one speaker is jammed close to the side wall. Give it at least 3' or more to breathe since you have the space.

Jim

As far as what he's driving them w/, he's got a vintage Pioneer SX-1250. I figured (or rather, I hoped) the Pioneer's 160 watts/channel would be sufficient for these. He also has a pretty decent direct drive Pioneer record player and a Sony cd player.

As far as weather or not he'll sit down and enjoy the sound, I get my audio addiction from him so I know he'll get nothing short of good use out of them! I'll also make sure he understands the severity of placement so they end up in the right spot. Thanks again for the replies, really helps a lot :T !!

[AdelaaR]

SX-1250 ... a classic
Those 160 vintage Watts are probably "program power" meaning that your receiver should be able to actually produce 160 Watts all the time without too much problems.
This in contrast to most new "1800 Watt" devices, which are PMPO or "peak power" ... aka bullshit-Watts.
Personally I believe that 160 vintage Watts is way too much even.
I've got a 1977 Sansui here that has 80 Watts per channel and with that device I can go deaf instantly, so to speak.

[AdelaaR]

About the ports: I have made a custom design of the statements with seperated crossover compartment and front port. I also made the port slightly bigger ... because I live in europe it's harder to find ports in inches and I just like how big ports with sloping edges in black plastic look