ported usually gets the best responce and sound quality. sealed works great for punchy bass, it just lacks the SPL and "performance" a ported box can offer when built correctly....
i also disagree with shagdrum, in a ported box you can tune it to your personal prefrence. depends on what you really like to hear in your bass. you can tune high or low, or even add port inserts to further your tuning desire at the time.
What I said was correct; if you want
accurate sound reproduction, sealed is the way to go.
Ported focuses on one frequency and doesn't reproduce (at the same level) the whole range of frequencies needed for accurate sound reproduction. If all the music you listen to only has that frequency in the subwoofer range that the ported box is tuned to reproduce (not realist) then ported is the way to go for sound quality; if you listen to actual music, and then ported is terrible for sound quality as it is too inconsistent across the frequency range it is used to reproduce to accurately transfer the signal into noise.
SPL
does not equal SQ. in fact, they are on opposite ends of the spectrum. An SPL competition car will never seriously compete (as setup for SPL) in a SQ competition. Most SPL cars use ported boxes, while most SQ cars use sealed (dependant, somewhat, on the driver used and the type of vehicle).
It sounds like, considering $m0k3LS's preferences, that ported would work best for him....but the end result won't be accurate, realistic sound reproduction.
The nature of the noise a ported box generates inherently distorts the part of the signal a subwoofer reproduces; it just does so in a way that many people like. A very well designed, high-end home audio system built around sound accuracy/realistic sound reproduction would never have bass of that nature (ported) as it isn't accurate, realistic sound reproduction. Same goes for recording studios.
Electric bass guitars use, live, a speaker in a sealed box to generated the sound input the player is making. How can a ported box more acurately replicate that sound then a sealed?
Trilkb, you are focusing on personal preference, which should ultimately dictate what you put in your car, but don't mistake personal preference as defining sound quality. Sound quality (when it comes to sound reproduction, which is all car audio is) is defined by being as realistic and close to the actual performance originally recorded as can be. Ported boxes, by their very nature move away from that by coloring the sound in a distinct way that wasn't in the original performance, and thus
cannot generate good sound quality.