As everyone has said, performance-wise, they're pretty much equal. Which you go with depends a lot on personal taste. If desired, a box sub can be blended into the room as stand or end table, making it not as noticable. Translation= the wife is generally more tolerant of it. There is NO blending a cylinder sub!

Translation= You're probably single or the wife is blind.

It's definately a conversation piece for the uninitiated! I love mine!