The Controversial Speaker Cab

Comments · 919

• IN

  @indianastoneswv · 3 years ago

  Buying a Harley Benton cab is like buying speakers with free housing.

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• JE

  @JensenSpeakersVideos · 3 years ago

  Hello community. My name is Ignazio Vagnone and I work for Jensen Speakers. I hope our 2-cents might be of interest for you guys.<br><br>As mentioned, ported cabs have been around for a long time, mostly in the HiFi/ProAudio/Bass fields. The goal is to have higher efficiency in the lower frequency range, taking the back emission of the speaker, that would be lost/dampened out in a closed cab, and sum it to the front emission, via the ports, therefore radiating more energy. The net result, &quot;if correctly designed&quot; is a speaker that will have more bass punch compared to a closed speaker of the same size.<br>By &quot;correctly designed&quot; we mean: the cab must be designed by using the Thiele/Small parameters of that single specific speaker, to determine its size, the size of the vents (size of the opening, depth of the vents) and the Resonace Frequency of the system (speaker+cab). &quot;If correctly designed&quot;, such a cab can achieve a reinforcement in a very usable bass range, and actually CUT the &quot;sub-bass&quot; region, therefore protecting the speaker. The usual frequency where this kind of cabs are tuned to is around 70 to 90Hz, very roughly. This will grant a push in the bass zone, but the energy will be gradually rolled off below such range, effectively preventing the speaker to &quot;bottom out&quot; or being damaged. Very similar effect to a High Pass Filter, but it is achieved acoustically, rather then with en electronic filter.A well tuned relex cab will actually have a great control on the membrane Xmax (Maximum excursion), granting a faster, tighter and safer response in the bass range. So each single reflex cab will work at its best only with the specific speaker, whose parameters have been used for the design of the cab. This is key to the whole concept. Now, would any similar speaker blow out if you put it in? Most likely not, but it may not perform at its best. Maybe too dry, maybe too boomy... one cab design for one speaker. The simple idea that the same ported cab may be loaded with different speakers is wrong in principle, unfortunately.<br><br>We&apos;re not certain of the reason why Celestion does not recommend using Thiele Small parameters to design a cab. I personally would think that they try not to engourage a DIY approach in this matter. Our take on this is that with an open back or a closed back design such paramenters are less important and there is little or no chance of building a cab &quot;so wrong&quot; that it will sound poorly, or that the speaker might be ultimately be damaged. With a reflex cab there is such potential risk, and only an expert, proven engineer who exactly knows what he&apos;s doing can properly design such a cab.<br><br>Which manufacturers use ported cabs? Many, and since many years. And most of them are top class manufacturers. MESA/Boogie, Bogner, Custom Audio Electronics, Rocktron, Mad Professor, Dr,Z, just to name the most impressive ones; and (funny, ain&apos;t it?) they all mostly use Celestion speakers... without any issue along with time. Just because the cab is &quot;correctly designed&quot; for that specific speaker, as pointed out in the video. Why would they waste time and money to design and build a speaker cab that is significantly more expensive to make, if there would be no reason to use them in terms of sound? Are all of them outta of their minds? We don&apos;t think so...<br><br>But the recordings show no difference; yes, but the mic was so close to the cone, and so far away from the ports that it&apos;s just normal that you did not hear or measure any difference. Add a mic in front of the port and gradually add it to the mai mic, and you will hear what kind of contribution it adds.<br>Such a solution is mostly conceived to have small speaker cabs sounding bigger, and express their virrtues &quot;in the room&quot;, not really in a close mic recording situation. You can hear the difference in the room, and you can feel the added punch in the low &nbsp;range.<br>Let me know if this was interesting, and if there are any other question you&apos;d wish to ask! I&apos;m always open to the nerdiest gear-talk! :)

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• DA

  @DanTheGeetarman · 3 years ago

  As an audio engineer listening in my studio, those open ports just add sub low end rumble that has no definition or enhancement of the audio signal at all. You are 100% correct that any audio engineer is going to filter that out guaranteed. That would just cloud up the low end and make the bass low end sound way less defined. And hypothetically if an audio engineer missed that, any decent &nbsp;mastering engineer would hear that in a heartbeat and get rid of that. Low end rumble is an audio engineer’s bane because it eats up a TON of headroom while not contributing anything sonically to the performance. Cliffs notes version: either cover up the ports or get a different cab lol

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• BI

  @bigwomp932 · 2 years ago

  Celestion saying &quot;don&apos;t do this&quot; just makes me really wanna try one.

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• CH

  @christopherjamesb7751 · 3 years ago

  Jim Lil&apos;s entire video series on &quot;where does guitar &apos;tone&apos; come from&quot;, and his series on speaker cabinets sizes are both highly informative and &nbsp;educational. &nbsp;Thanks for mentioning him.

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• BA

  @BarefacedAudio · 3 years ago

  I could write a lengthy response but I think it&apos;ll take me less time (and allow me to be more clear) if I make a video explaining what&apos;s going on and why the mic position means that the audio in the video (and the frequency response plots) won&apos;t match what&apos;s happening in the room. <br><br>Quick summary - the mic is so close to the cone and so far from the port (comparatively) that it won&apos;t pick up significant port output but it will pick up the reduced cone output around the port&apos;s resonant frequency. And the increase in 45Hz lows on the response plot - that&apos;s almost certainly because the speaker is unloaded and moving more due to increased box compliance, although that output is cancelling the port output as its below the tuning frequency for a ported guitar cab.<br><br>It&apos;s a good idea for a video but the practical implementation hasn&apos;t worked, sorry! However, it&apos;s nice to have people making videos about this stuff, because it does matter!

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• DR

  @Dram1984 · 3 years ago

  I did notice a fairly small difference. Probably one of those things that will “sounds better” in your bedroom but be fairly meaningless in a band/mix/performance.

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• ZH

  @zhiguli8 · 3 years ago

  I&apos;d be curious to hear what it would sound like with the mic backed away from the cabinet since, as far as I know, &nbsp;lower frequencies need more space to develop since the wavelength is longer I think it&apos;s why you can really feel the bass (and depending on the distance, not hear much treble) from someone who has loaded their car with a large system and insists on blasting it wherever they go. This is a problem in the US, but not sure about other countries which may have sensible noise ordinances. It may make no difference at all, but you did say it &quot;felt&quot; different when the ports were uncovered and your ears were I&apos;m guessing not right neck to the speaker like the mic was.

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• MI

  @Mike5000-p6w · 3 years ago

  The Friedman 1x12 is also &nbsp;ported.

  8

• TE

  @TeleCustom72 · 3 years ago

  I&apos;ve used a Thiele 1x12 cab with an EV12/l for over 10 years now. Gigged with it, recorded with it - absolutely flawless. It&apos;s definitely got a &apos;bigger&apos; sound than non-ported cabs. I certainly don&apos;t feel like its lacking in any way when I&apos;m gigging. For recording, engineers are amazed at the chunky sound it kicks out.

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• BR

  @brighammmer · 3 years ago

  I think you nailed it when you mentioned the EV and TL cab specs. That cab was designed around that speaker. And typically, when i see someone selling a TL-style cab, its got an EV. EVs have a specific voice and function. <br><br>Good job articulating the warnings on the unloaded cabs caveats. <br><br>Cheers!<br><br>Id be interested to hear the difference in a room-miked siyuation vs having the mic right up on speaker.

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• AN

  @antonyyuryev9750 · 3 years ago

  I had a HiWatt HG412 Cab and it has a something like this portal for air flow down at the back side. One of the best cabs I ever had to be honest

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