Essentially all the sub needs to do is handle the power and excur linearly with the signal given.
Box design is most important..
Yes, sealed, tight and punchy. But more importantly, output is relatively linear across the sub bass frequencies.
For ported, there is a spike at the tuning frequency.. and anything around that frequency, it gets a bit sloppy..
I have heard very controlled bass from a ported box before, as long as the cutoff is set properly to minimise uncontrolled cone movement..