is it bad to seal a proted sub?

[craig7]

i got an 8" sony subwoofer about 2 weeks ago and when i hooked it up, i noticed that the port was making a really loud and annoying sound, so i too the sub out of the box and the speaker itsself was making the noise slightly but the port seemed to intensify it so i shoved some socks into the port and then it sounded fine, but im a little worried that it might damage the speaker. i really like this sub too because it smokes my panasonic and shakes my whole house without even trying :/ so, will blocking the port damage it?

 

[TLS Guy]

i got an 8" sony subwoofer about 2 weeks ago and when i hooked it up, i noticed that the port was making a really loud and annoying sound, so i too the sub out of the box and the speaker itsself was making the noise slightly but the port seemed to intensify it so i shoved some socks into the port and then it sounded fine, but im a little worried that it might damage the speaker. i really like this sub too because it smokes my panasonic and shakes my whole house without even trying :/ so, will blocking the port damage it?

It won't damage it, but you will loose your bass. Almost all the low bass comes out of the port. The problem is the sub is badly designed and the port air velocity is too high causing audible turbulence and port compression.

The port needs to be a lot bigger and much longer.

If you block the port the sub will start rolling off at least an octave higher than it does now, but roll off 12 db per octave instead of 24 db per octave.