So closed box speakers are pretty much a dead?

[NTomokawa]

Like vampires, nothing in audio is really dead. People still buy tube amps and listen to vinyl. Sealed speakers, while rare, are still around. It's possible they could get popular again.

I hope so!

 

[Deleted member 2944]

I don't think most folks nowadays understand the trade-offs between ported and sealed systems. They open the packaging for their new HT speakers and see the little foam plugs and wonder WTF are those and throw 'em in the wastebasket.

When I see something like the Opera Seconda, all I see is yet another slim, box speaker that fits the standard paradigm. There are thousands of them nowadays....all with the same inherent issues.
I don't have enough interest to even keep reading and see whether it's a ported-box or closed-box setup.

This is where we're at in the speaker market today.

Dave.

 

[Purité Audio]

Every speaker here is sealed, apart from the Hedd 20 and 5, design and implementation always trump, ethos.
Keith

 

[MarcT]

FWIW, the Legacy Audio Signature SE is a sealed design.
https://legacyaudio.com/products/view/signature-se/

 

[Dumdum]

I fancy multiple sealed 18’s for a home theatre setup, purely to get the bottom end nice without using a port to reinforce the low end... my single 12” does a nice job in the car, but I get the benefit of the transfer function of the car, but the lack of excessive group delay makes sealed a lot nicer option for a car environment I wish I could say the same about phase issues higher up mind

 

[MattHooper]

My Spendor s3/5s are sealed. I owned big Hales Transcendence floor standers that were sealed too.

Best bass I’ve heard yet in a floorstander (to my ears tightest/least boxy and at least among the speakers I’ve owned) have come from Thiels - CS6 and the CS 3.7 even better.
Those used passive radiators in the bass.

 

[soundwave]

My Dynaudio Focus XD 600's are sealed. They are also active and full range. The same speakers are still available but are called XD60 now.

 

[LTig]

I hope so!

I don't think so, with the current trend to make everything smaller and smaller. We might see more passive radiators instead of simple tunnels though.

 

[Juhazi]

Sealed boxes are smaller than resonators, and DSP+power can fix low end response.

 

[Dumdum]

Sealed boxes are smaller than resonators, and DSP+power can fix low end response.

I much prefer to get the response as near as possible to my target and then use eq for the icing on the cake and to smooth the response, your way assumes you have headroom, generally the low end in a big room rolls off more than 3db an octave so you need a lot of headroom or listen quietly, if you can get boisterous you’re better tailoring the response with no eq before relying on boost imo

 

[jfetter]

I have a stash of Minimus 7 speakers along with nos spare parts.
Sometimes use a passive sub but really prefer just the Minimus 7... Sometimes in an array too but always return to the 2.0 configuration with stock crossover.

 

[jonfitch]

Are there any other inherent disadvantages to closed speakers other than SPL efficiency?

Given that even some of the most highly regarded speaker companies in the world still sell high-end speakers with audible port-related issues, it's certainly plausible (at least) that modern closed designs may have notable benefits (if only due to the different way they interact with room placement).

I think they tend to sound less dynamic, even with bass extension equalized. Good example is the Revel Ultima2 Gem which is 35% bigger by volume than the Revel PerformaBe M126BE and 61% bigger than the Revel Performa3 M105. But even after equalizing the bass between all three with dirac live for example, the Ultima 2 Gem still sounds anemic as hell, like I'm listening to a clock radio. I have to cross them over crazy high with a sub (120hz+) just to get any semblance of similar dynamics to their ported cousins.

 

[q3cpma]

I think they tend to sound less dynamic, even with bass extension equalized. Good example is the Revel Ultima2 Gem which is 35% bigger by volume than the Revel PerformaBe M126BE and 61% bigger than the Revel Performa3 M105. But even after equalizing the bass between all three with dirac live for example, the Ultima 2 Gem still sounds anemic as hell, like I'm listening to a clock radio. I have to cross them over crazy high with a sub (120hz+) just to get any semblance of similar dynamics to their ported cousins.

Trying to characterize the "dynamics" of passive designs is bound to go wrong, though. We know you need the power and efficiency of direct amp-driver coupling and "better" drivers to rival resonance based designs.

 

[dshreter]

Trying to characterize the "dynamics" of passive designs is bound to go wrong, though. We know you need the power and efficiency of direct amp-driver coupling and "better" drivers to rival resonance based designs.

Are you talking about servo-driven designs or something else?

 

[q3cpma]

Are you talking about servo-driven designs or something else?

Nah, just multi-amping. "Dynamics" is supposed to be the main improvement, since your damping factor can be made as good as possible and you don't have the power loss of a passive crossover.