One bung or two?

Jeebsy

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I've been struggling with positioning of my Dali Oberon 3s - the listening position seems to be a really bad for reflections; the bass was super muddy and it took ages to decay. The room isn't ideal but need to try and make do.

Listening position is the middle of the couch.

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Yesterday I got everything drawn out to confirm positions and played with distance from the wall; 55cm worked best but it still sounded like the EQ for the bass had been turned up and I started getting a sore head after a while.

My Missions came with foam bungs but the Dali's didn't so started experimenting based on forum recommendations - a rolled up sock took too much out, but some straws taped up into a tube worked pretty well - maybe a bit bass forward still but much more listenable.

However - it is the speaker on the right causing all the issues. With the sock in the right speaker only, it killed all the nasty elements.

I'm going to a plumbing supply shop this morning to get some pipe insulation with different internal diameters to see if they offer a bit more in terms of fine tuning, but once I hopefully find the sweet spot, should I put bungs in both speakers to make sure they're balanced? Forums seem to be split with some people saying only bung the speaker causing issues, and others saying you should bung both for balance.
 
I wonder if some sort of diffuser on the wall above the sofa might help. See if you have something around the house first before going out to buy something.

 
What do you mean by pipe insulation with different diameters? If you mean changing the size of the port on the back of the speaker, all this will do is alter the tuning frequency, which isn’t recommended. Either sealed or open are the only options you should really be using with these speakers.
 
What do you mean by pipe insulation with different diameters? If you mean changing the size of the port on the back of the speaker, all this will do is alter the tuning frequency, which isn’t recommended. Either sealed or open are the only options you should really be using with these speakers.

Yeah, I guess. The outside is 54mm which is the diameter of the port, then I got a couple of pipes with different internal diameters to reduce the amount of airflow. One speaker manufacturer (I forget which one but someone posted pictures online) include a cylinder shaped bung to use in their speakers if required, so this was going along that train of thought.

I've emailed Dali to see if they have any suggestions but when I used a sock (which would effectively seal it?) I lost way too much mid and bass. The straws were better not perfect.

The pipe with 13mm diameter in just the right speaker is actually sounding pretty great, there's a lot more clarity to the bass, no boominess, it sounds way more balanced.
 
Yeah, I guess. The outside is 54mm which is the diameter of the port, then I got a couple of pipes with different internal diameters to reduce the amount of airflow. One speaker manufacturer (I forget which one but someone posted pictures online) include a cylinder shaped bung to use in their speakers if required, so this was going along that train of thought.

I've emailed Dali to see if they have any suggestions but when I used a sock (which would effectively seal it?) I lost way too much mid and bass. The straws were better not perfect.

The pipe with 13mm diameter in just the right speaker is actually sounding pretty great, there's a lot more clarity to the bass, no boominess, it sounds way more balanced.
All this has done is effectively lower the tuning frequency of the speaker. The speakers will have more output around the tunings of the ports, and lowering this will have put the extra output outside of the music passband and reduced boom. The downside to this is port velocity will go up meaning port chuffing will become a problem sooner than before.
 
I ended up fixing the room modes with Dirac Live, but in case anyone else is having similar issues, I messaged Dali on Facebook back in August to ask what they thought about using bungs, and they replied yesterday with this:

The foam tube you have used is a great way of reducing the bass output of the speakers. What happens when you "deactivate" the bass reflex port the bass response of the speakers will roll of higher up in frequency, restricting the ability to play the lowest bass tones. If you were to use a completely sealed foam plug, the speakers would simply roll off higher up in frequency. So the way you are doing it is correct, trying it out and using your ears is the best way to find the best result.
 

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