KEF LS 50

YEah sealed or possibly front rather than rear ported speakers will probably be less impacted by placement in a cupboard/cabinet that obstructs sound to the sides and rear, but rear ported might still be fine. Ports can always be plugged/obstructed to various degrees as needed.

If you have the KEFs already, its easy to try for yourself and see/hear. That will tell you more most likely than anything theoretical that can be offered up in a forum in lieu of actually hearing. The ls50s big performance in a very small package would seem to lend themselves relatively well to being placed in a cabinet, I would say. I suspect some partial obstruction of the port might be worth fiddling with.

I think I read somewhere that the ls50s are based on older nearfield monitor designs and that some of teh best listening results have been reported from those listening in a more near field type setup. My experience with the ls50s was pretty consistent with this.

I got to hear another agoner's ls50s on my system in both a larger and smaller room in my house. They were underwhelming in the large room, which would have been a tall challenge given their size, but did very well in the smaller room in all regards. Did not get to listen nearfield, but I suspect that would have been quite ideal,especially given their point source like concentric driver design.