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Ported versus sealed speakers: is one type better?

Have two systems of wildly different scale and cost.  My main rig features Wilson Watt/Puppy 7's, while at my vacation cabin the system features Totem Rainmakers.

Got me thinking recently that both are ported designs.  And many box speakers are indeed ported designs.

However some of the best and most costly speakers are sealed - not ported.  Examples include Magico and YG Acoustics among others.

 I realize ports are just one aspect of the overall design but I'm seeking opinions on whether one is inherently worse than the other (ported versus non ported)?

Thus would a Magico or YG have an inherent advantage over a Wilson, Rockport,  Von Schweikert or other top ported design?

Any thoughts?
bobbydd

Showing 1 response by corelli

corelli
941 posts
 
Several important points have been made. I'll add just a couple more.

--back in the day when BR designs were poorly tuned, they were touted to "more efficient" because of a peak that was tuned too high.  So you gained more "boom" and "efficiency" if you want to call it that.  This also gave BR designs of long ago a reputation for inaccurate loose bass-which it was.  A properly tuned BR enclosure will extend bass deeper, but as stated above, no gain in efficiency.  
--While the BR enclosure will extend bass deeper, it will also roll off faster at 18dB per ocatve below the tuning frequency.  A sealed system has a more gentle roll off of 12 db
--Bass response of either system can be great or lousy.  It's all about implementation and I don't think one can generalize at all on this issue.
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