Bass ports - front firing or rear firing?

[mltamisin]

What are the benefits of each & when is one preferred over the other?

[seriousfun]

An ideal port (a tuned resonator used to effectively lower the frequency response of a speaker cabinet) would sound the same whether it is put on the front or back of a speaker, in an ideal room.

Ports aren't perfect, so some can make wind noises of their own. These noises will be less noticeable if the port is on the rear.

If the room is less than perfect (as they all are), a rear-firing port may interact with the wall behind the speaker in various ways that a front-firing port won't.

[Thumper]

Two words.

Passive Radiators.

No port noise, WAY smaller box, and it just plain looks cooler.

Sadly, there aren't many name brand sub makers that use them. They should.

[seriousfun]

A passive radiator is just a variation on a tuned port design (yes, no port noise). To get the same results, however, the same size box is generally needed.

I also assumed the OP was referring to main speakers, not subwoofers, but I could be wrong.

For the flattest results, a sealed cabinet is always the first way to go. It does need more of everything - power, driver excursion, etc. - to work, compared to a ported design.

[Thumper]

Passive radiator boxes can be quite a bit smaller than a ported design, if using decent radiators. We're talking fs of 7hz or lower.

Sealed boxes won't give you 'flatter' response curves. It will have a nice gentle slope downward. In a small bookshelf type design, you might have more extreem bottom end, but it won't be accurate, and you shouldn't be using a small bookshelf speaker to monitor below say... 50 hz anyway. Anything lower than that, and you're either going to need a sub, or a different speaker.

Ported boxes will be flatter to a point, and then drop like a rock below the tuning frequency of the alignment. I consider this to be 'flatter' response.

You just can't expect subwoofer performance from a bookshelf speaker.

Back to the thread... I would only worry about a front firing port if it was a poorly designed speaker, and you get port turbulence. Then rear firing might be better. Otherwise, there isn't really a given difference that I can give you. It all depends on your room.

[mltamisin]

In my room the closer I get to the wall the better the bass response. Strange. I tried the typical placement avoiding the nulls and placing the speakers closer to me but the bass response was poor and weak. I currently have rear ported speakers and was wondering if front ported speakers would be better.