Sealed vs. Ported Speakers

No speaker design is inherently inferior to any other. It just depends on how well a particular design is implemented, and if the music played on it is appropriate for that design.

That being said, I do like rear ported speakers better than front ported speakers. (no snide remarks on my masculinity now, or my fondness for sheep, please)

4 of 5 pair of speakers I run are ported.

In order (largest to smallest):

OHM Walshes: bottom port
Dynaudio monitors: rear port
Triangle monitors: front port
Realistic Minimus 7s: no port

They are all very good, within their specific limits. Performance levels achievable happen to correspond directly to the relative size.

The Sonus Faber Stradivari is WAY more than $20k, and it is ported. The $200k Wilson Alexandria speakers are ported, as are Audionote speakers, Classica Audio, and a host of others. There are plenty of sealed box speakers under $100 a pair.

It is not hard to design and build speakers that are either ported or sealed, so cost is irrelevant.

The only thing that I haven't seen mentioned is that as woofers are used over time, their spec do change. Getting port tuning correct is more critical than the spec's straying a bit for a sealed box. So Sealed boxes tend to stay sounding as designed longer than a ported box.
Tim

IMHO, in the simplest terms:

Ports can offer better value.
Sealed speakers can offer better performance.