What room interaction does, I think, is produce boomy, one-note bass that is distorted in both the time and frequency domains. Equalization can help with the frequency domain problem, and at the same time, reduce the amplitude of the smear. But room treatment or dynamic equalization is required to reduce its duration.
To make matters worse, bass modes can shift the pitch of the note.
Still, that doesn't really explain why vented subs typically sound mushier than acoustic suspension ones, and acoustic suspension woofers mushier than planars. Cone breakup and nonlinear distortion may have something to do with this, the harmonic distortion on a subwoofer can approach 10%. Cabinet resonances could also play a role. The role of group delay in a vented sub is perhaps more controversial, since as someone pointed out small amounts of group delay don't seem to be audible on musical material, and also since the delay caused by resonances is much greater than the delay introduced by the vent.
Finally, many subs, particularly ported ones, aren't designed for flat response. They're designed to make the loudest thump possible to please people who want to reproduce explosions and dinosaur stampedes. Or to produce lots of bass on the cheap for people who don't understand the difference between loud and deep.
Still, at the end of the day, I haven't seen a truly rigorous explanation of the phenomenon of perceived woofer speed.
To make matters worse, bass modes can shift the pitch of the note.
Still, that doesn't really explain why vented subs typically sound mushier than acoustic suspension ones, and acoustic suspension woofers mushier than planars. Cone breakup and nonlinear distortion may have something to do with this, the harmonic distortion on a subwoofer can approach 10%. Cabinet resonances could also play a role. The role of group delay in a vented sub is perhaps more controversial, since as someone pointed out small amounts of group delay don't seem to be audible on musical material, and also since the delay caused by resonances is much greater than the delay introduced by the vent.
Finally, many subs, particularly ported ones, aren't designed for flat response. They're designed to make the loudest thump possible to please people who want to reproduce explosions and dinosaur stampedes. Or to produce lots of bass on the cheap for people who don't understand the difference between loud and deep.
Still, at the end of the day, I haven't seen a truly rigorous explanation of the phenomenon of perceived woofer speed.