The side of the ports aren't really going to affect the sound that much. The ports produce the lower end of the speaker's tuning, the part of bass considered omnidirectional, so the only way you could screw that up with placement is by blocking the port. The Adams have a flat baffle anyway, which may be worse for the off-axis response. Anyway, at this price point, I would definitely give the Emotiva a try, those Stealth 8s particularly look like beasts. The corresponding Adam with 8" woofer is $1k per speaker, and this is only $750 and has more power on tap.