Anyone try stuffing their ports?

One of the funniest things I ever saw... This was about 25 years ago. Started off being silly, rigged up a "recycled", cast iron, claw foot tub, a 2' thick pine table top, C-clamps, and a 18" "subwoofer" for this theater. Hey, that was the budget we had to work with. Anyways, my partner and myself were listening and snickering, trying to get this monstrosity to work. We talked about plugging the tub drain when my partner had an idea. This tub sat under the screen and I went to work behind the screen. When I came back and we cranked it up, he had put the drain pipe back on and duct-taped a condom onto it. Took a while to stop laughing but it actually did sound better. Covered it back up and left it there.

Went back years later to watch this action flick, (Rambo, Terminator, I forget) but I was the only one laughing as the bombs blew up.

Just don't let me catch anybody who is against mucking with an expert out of the box design rolling their tubes........

HI,
I have a total of 5 B&W 805S speakers in my bedroom 5.1 system. I use the supplied foam port plugs on all five. I did this to better integrate the 805S's with my dual B&W ASW800 subwoofers.

I have tried this system both with and without the plugs. Here is my take. If you are using the speakers without the B&W subs then they are best without the plugs. This set up gives deeper bass (such as it is). However, with subs, the plugs allow a smoother integration with the subs.

BTW, this is an incredible little system. The 805S's are excellent within the limitations imposed by their small size.

Sparky

Hi Sparky/Karma16,
You are talking about a very different animal with your B&W's. They are designed for the plug to properly roll off the bass to integrate the subwoofer... B&W knew the outcome of your plug before you ever thought about plugging them... The principle is the same for stuffing the port on any speaker, it will roll off the bottom....period.
What it comes down to really, is, you won't cause any damage stuffing ports, if you like the results, sit in front of them and enjoy. Good Listening, Tim

HI,
Yes you are right. B&W is pretty smart. The result is the 805S's and the subs integrate seamlessly. When Stereophile's John Atkinson reviewed my speakers he ran curves with the ports both unstuffed and stuffed. While neither he or B&W gave any guidence concerning when or why to use the port plugs, it was semi-obvious what was intended. Note that not only is the low frequency response decreased somewhat with the plugs (to close to a acoustic suspension alignment), the response is also smoothed with the typical port hump reduced to almost zero. This is the desired result to integrate the subwoofers.

Sparky