[music_man]

hi,

there is a super high end brand of bookshelf speakers. for years they had a port. sounded lovely. he switched to a radiator. not only is the graph not as good but I feel neither is the sound. he claims a radiator is a step forward.

I will not share the brand and cannot share the graphs as they were given to me in confidence. I will say I much prefer the ported version. everything else about them is the same accept of course for accommodating the radiator. the port was not your average port either but a geometric carbon fiber deal. he claims the radiator costs more than a port. which I read including r&d is not true.

I was just wondering if this is subjective or if there is a consensus behind this. I am not interested in what each prefers but rather if one is definitively more advanced technology then the other. thus providing universally better sound?

thank you

 

[johnnyb]

Ports and passive radiators are based on the same theory. The sound pressure to move the weight of the radiator should be the same as the pressure to move the mass of air in the port. If so, they should sound the same, minus any port chuffing or other noises. If they are not the same, and it's apparently tricky to get a radiator right, then the low frequencies of the speaker will be all thrown off. My guess is that it sounds worse because it was weighted incorrectly.

 

[music_man]

I do have reason to think he screwed this up and is trying to cover it up. Should have stuck with what was working. I did read they are effectively the same thing. So why he did this I do not know. Something was seriously wrong though. The ported ones blow the radiator into the dust. it is the same speaker so it has to be what you say. it is the mids affected though. no wonder as they do not go so low. so the mids is their bass. no doubt people will buy it, it does not sound bad until compared to the ported version. I wonder what happened but will never know. I did read it is more difficult to tune a port than a radiator so strange. no chuffing on these they are pretty high end speakers. it has like a trapezoid carbon fiber port specifically so you do not hear it. the radiator, the mids are just not right. this is like a 8 person shop so mistakes can happen. although for the money not good. I wonder if it was just a few pairs and he fixed it but he will not discuss it. nonetheless I see no reason to put the radiator on there when the ported was one heck of a speaker imo. don't fix what is not broken or break what is fixed lol. well, the idea is to introduce new products or upgrades for any vender I guess. just wish I knew his reasoning, causing this issue in the first place. I think the vast majority of high end speakers have ports. should have been the same but something didn't work. could be the box volume or anything.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

My guess is that it sounds worse because it was weighted incorrectly.

There could also be differences due to cabinet construction. Room interactions can vary if the radiator and port are not on the same side of the cabinets or if the radiators are set too low vs the port position.

 

[music_man]

Well the bottom line is he made some mistake. People buying speakers like this usually do not think a radiator is another driver or whatever the heck he intended. He had the best port I ever heard so go and mess it up. There is effectively no difference when done right everything else being the same. So I do not see the point. They are okay until you hear the ported version. So that can only mean something was done wrong.

 

[bfreedma]

Well the bottom line is he made some mistake. People buying speakers like this usually do not think a radiator is another driver or whatever the heck he intended. He had the best port I ever heard so go and mess it up. There is effectively no difference when done right everything else being the same. So I do not see the point. They are okay until you hear the ported version. So that can only mean something was done wrong.

What speaker are you discussing. Without being able to see the specs, it's impossible to know if the simple switch from a port to a radiator is problematic.

 

[music_man]

I had said I will not out him. since he will know it was me and doing so may not be to my favor. So, I understand without graphs you really know nothing. I can tell you it obviously is not a mirror image. much different. He may have sold some I do not know but I imagine he will make good if someone is unhappy. being six figure bookshelf speakers. luckily it does not really concern me as I have the ported ones. I just wondered how a radiator being effectively the same as a port could sound so different. bottom line either he tuned something on purpose or made a mistake. they do sound great until you hear the ported ones. than they sound terrible. the graphs are different but the specs are the same.