Andy's area of expertise / interest seems to be transmission lines, from looking at his excellent site.

I knew that transmission lines needed to be damped, stuffed with wool or other material, to act as a low pass filter, such that the wave exiting the port would be in phase and reinforce the bass in the region where help was needed. However, the damping would filter out the higher frequencies emminating from the port and help maintain a smoother overall response in the mid to upper bass by making the direct output of the woofer predominant.

So, it occurred to me that those thumpy old bass scoop bins might actually be made to function more like a transmission line-horn hybrid IF the upper half was stuffed with damping, leaving only the lower part (mouth) open. Thus taming the humpy-bumpy low end.

Oh, well... maybe I had better wear a carbon filter mask before varnishing next time...