Bassilisk.audio

Port noise

Air noise or compression from a port that is working too hard.

Basic Troubleshooting 1 min read
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Symptom

You hear rough air noise, puffing, whistling, or a strained sound on bass notes. The problem usually gets worse as volume rises.

Most likely causes

  • Port area is too small.
  • Port ends are sharp or not flared.
  • Tuning asks the port to move too much air.
  • The box is too small for the target output.
  • The port is blocked by stuffing, walls, braces, or nearby surfaces.

Fast checks

Common mistakes

Simple example

Sealed vs ported A sealed box traps the rear wave in an airtight cabinet. A ported box uses a tuned vent to add bass output around tuning. Weak bass Weak bass is often caused by polarity, placement, room nulls, level mismatch, leaks, or tuning problems. Check those before changing drivers. Frequency response Frequency response shows how loud a speaker is at each frequency. It helps reveal balance, crossover behavior, box tuning, and room problems.

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