Next, the subs. I disagree, heartily here, that ported subs are lesser than sealed. Like everything else, the deeper you go, the harder a speaker is to integrate. If we’ve done all our work correctly, sealed the mains, integrated well, a ported sub may be great. Most of the issues raised here are bogey menI added a third sub to my system two weeks ago. The first two subs are sealed the new one has a passive radiator which is worse than a ported sub.
The issue that I started to notice because of the passive radiator was that the kick drum beats were lasting too long. At first it was kind of cool to hear those big fat beats but it didn't take too long to figure out that they shouldn't be like that. The effect on the bass instruments is a little more subtle since they naturally have longer sustain before they start to decay.
I think this is what the JL Audio author was talking about when he was saying that a ported sub did not work well in a two channel music system.
I ended up placing a pillow under the passive radiator (down firing) and that helped immensely. The kick drum still had a big rich tone but a much more natural (a bad word since most kick drums are modified to limit sustain) duration. Big impact, rapid decay, while the other bass instruments became a little more detailed