Sealed or ported both have benefits and - aspects to performance.There are ported designs that outperform sealed as there are sealed designs that outperform ported. The total design of the average subwoofer system is all about compromise. Cabinets overly small,as are most transducers drivers need massive excursions power and reinforcement from room boundaries due to the undersized nature of such compromised designs. A big reason why most do not work so well in music systems..
