Hey guys, I just picked up a pair of RL-3's.  The owners manual does not mention what the 8pc of small "baffles" are for.  Judging from the size and shape I suspect they are for reducing the size of the radial bottom ports?  Unfortunately the owners manual doesn't mention these.  If someone could explain that would be great.  How do these affect the sound?

I have set them each on a small shag carpet square rather than directly on my hardwood floor.  Is it worth trying them directly above the hardwood floor or is carpet the way to go?

I did find additional info on this forum regarding cap values so I'll being messing around a little with those.  I have various AuriCaps that will be suitable.

TIA

tubesmuggler

Tubesmuggler,

 Welcome to the forum, and to the RL-3's, still my favorite speaker!!!

 The 8 pcs. of baffles are exactly what you thought they were for, they slide in the bottom making the bottom port smaller. RL-3's sold after the introduction of the Torii-II have the port size reduced to the size your baffles make the ports after installing them, so no need for them after that. There are 6 pair, 5 actually as Steve has one set, that can't use the bass tweak, as I added some braces (corner blocks) to the inside corners, in an attempt to make them UPS proof, you can lay the speaker on its side and look through the bottom hole and see the 3/4" X 3/4" blocks glued in the corners.

 This tweak works best with the addition of mass added to the passive, which if it has been added to your pair, you'll see a 1/4" fender washer glued to the outside of the passive.   If they sound fine with your amp set up, and you have the corner block in place, which would make the baffle useless (unless you could cut them down smaller to fit around the glue blocks) then they won't get much better than they are with out them.

Hope this helps,
Bob Z