Rear Port Speakers Installed in Home Theater Cabinet

[Stubud]

I'm looking for advice on designing home theater towers and center
speaker console around my projection screen. I'm designing a left and
right tower to go on each side of the screen. Across the top will be a
panel (approx. 6-8" ) behind which my center speaker will be mounted
and some recessed lighting to light up the wall area when the screen is
up/not in use. The area at the bottom between the towers will have a
storage bench across the bottom as well (bench for sitting when screen
not in use, storage for vinyls, DVDs, Videos's etc.)

Here's the question. In each tower I'm planning to place my left and
right front speakers which are Infinity SM-12's. These speakers are
rear ported. Above the speakers would be storage for videos/DVDs (left
side) etc and the audio components (right side). In regards to the
rear ports, would it best to try to just leave the back open with space
allowed between wall and tower to allow sound out OR should I build a
baffle system that would capture the rear port sound and project it
forward? If the baffle is the best way (surely the most complicated),
where could I find specs and ideas to design this system? If such as
system was built, I'm assuming I would need to devise some reasonably
sealed coupling system to connect the rear port to its baffle system.
Remember that the "leaving space" option would only allow sound out at
the outer side of each tower because of the bench across the bottom.
Thanks!
============
Stuart

[Arny Krueger]

"Stubud" > wrote in message
ups.com

> Here's the question. In each tower I'm planning to place my left and
> right front speakers which are Infinity SM-12's. These speakers are
> rear ported. Above the speakers would be storage for videos/DVDs
> (left side) etc and the audio components (right side). In regards to
> the rear ports, would it best to try to just leave the back open with
> space allowed between wall and tower to allow sound out OR should I
> build a baffle system that would capture the rear port sound and
> project it forward?

Rear ports work best if not constrained. So an appropriate empty space seems
like the best idea. Ideally speakers with rear ports are placed a foot or
more from the wall.

[Michael McKelvy]

"Stubud" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> I'm looking for advice on designing home theater towers and center
> speaker console around my projection screen. I'm designing a left and
> right tower to go on each side of the screen. Across the top will be a
> panel (approx. 6-8" ) behind which my center speaker will be mounted
> and some recessed lighting to light up the wall area when the screen is
> up/not in use. The area at the bottom between the towers will have a
> storage bench across the bottom as well (bench for sitting when screen
> not in use, storage for vinyls, DVDs, Videos's etc.)
>
> Here's the question. In each tower I'm planning to place my left and
> right front speakers which are Infinity SM-12's. These speakers are
> rear ported. Above the speakers would be storage for videos/DVDs (left
> side) etc and the audio components (right side). In regards to the
> rear ports, would it best to try to just leave the back open with space
> allowed between wall and tower to allow sound out OR should I build a
> baffle system that would capture the rear port sound and project it
> forward?

IMO it would be best to let the speaker vent as designed. No reason to
re-engineer the work done by the original desingers.

Personally, I wouldn't put the speakers inside of anything, as this would
make it impossible to experiment with placement at a later date or in a
different space, if need arises.

[Stubud]

Michael McKelvy wrote:
> "Stubud" > wrote in message
> ups.com...
> > I'm looking for advice on designing home theater towers and center
> > speaker console around my projection screen. I'm designing a left
and
> > right tower to go on each side of the screen. Across the top will
be a
> > panel (approx. 6-8" ) behind which my center speaker will be
mounted
> > and some recessed lighting to light up the wall area when the
screen is
> > up/not in use. The area at the bottom between the towers will have
a
> > storage bench across the bottom as well (bench for sitting when
screen
> > not in use, storage for vinyls, DVDs, Videos's etc.)
> >
> > Here's the question. In each tower I'm planning to place my left
and
> > right front speakers which are Infinity SM-12's. These speakers
are
> > rear ported. Above the speakers would be storage for videos/DVDs
(left
> > side) etc and the audio components (right side). In regards to the
> > rear ports, would it best to try to just leave the back open with
space
> > allowed between wall and tower to allow sound out OR should I build
a
> > baffle system that would capture the rear port sound and project it
> > forward?
>
> IMO it would be best to let the speaker vent as designed. No reason
to
> re-engineer the work done by the original desingers.
>
> Personally, I wouldn't put the speakers inside of anything, as this
would
> make it impossible to experiment with placement at a later date or in
a
> different space, if need arises.

Actually, I'm designing the home theater unit to allow the speakers to
be removed and not be permanent if necessary. I posted the original
question so that I may get further ideas on how to "vent" the rear port
out around the home theater wall unit. So far from the two responses
I've received (your's and Amy's), it sounds likE I would want to design
the unit so that the back of the cabinet has openings around the entire
speaker to vent the rear port sound. I could subtly hide these
openings with black speaker cloth to make the unit look nice (i.e.
rather than large gaping spaces for speaker venting). The idea here is
asthetics and functionality.