Hey,
I am building a 1x12" cab (with measurements "inspired" by a commercial product).
It's currentl planned as closed-back, as it's said this has more "punch", which makes sense intuitively.
Now I was made aware of the possibility to mount the speaker from the front, or the rear side of the baffle.
I browsed a bit through gear sites and, as is often the case, there were a lot of contradicting opinions on the difference this makes. It's apparent not a lot of people have made systematic tests with this kind of stuff, let alone are deep into the theory.
Can anyone here say for sure what difference it would make?
For one thing, in my layman's imagination, the rear-mounted variant would have a narrower "beam" of sound, as the wider angles of the speaker are somewhat blocked by wood encircling the speaker's front.
I would not like that, as it's not for stage, but rather home studio use. It would be nicer to be able to have a decent sound even when standing not exactly center-speaker.