Sealed vs Ported Subwoofers

You should definitely not sell a speaker because it is or is not ported. Neither design approach is inherently better; it depends entirely on the implementation. Wilson speakers are ported and Magico prefers sealed enclosures--both produce excellent results.

I have 3 pairs of ported ones and one pair of sealed ones and they all work fine. As previous poster said it is the individual design that matters.

My current subwoofer is sealed and is used in my music system. I've used ported in a home theater system. What I believe to be more useful in integrating a subwoofer is getting a digital sound processing sub that allows room equalization. And just as important is being able to adjust the volume of the subwoofer independently and easily from your left/right speakers. Once I set the volume for the source signal I generally adjust the subwoofer volume to get the sound right. Useing the same static volume settings for the sub in relation to the left/right speakers in all situations is what causes so many complaints about subwoofer integration IMO.

Sealed generally means less resonance and group delay - so more refined bass.

Ported means higher output which can be important for HT and will give you more bass for much less money(much more efficient).

What Shadorne said. Ported subs are usually (though not always) less damped than sealed subs. That helps for high output capability at very low frequencies (read "HT"), but might cause some issues when optimizing for a music system. However, as the other posts note, individual subwoofer designs vary, as do main speaker designs. The trick re: damping is to find a sub and mains that are similarly damped at the crossover point. I'd guess that, more often than not, a sealed sub will be a better choice, but "more often than not" is not the same thing as always.

Good Luck

Marty