Either will perform better if away from the wall. Mine are rear port and on stands away from any wall to reduce possible boominess, although I dont hear all that much as they are rears. Front ports can tend to boom a bit, so listen to different speakers in the config where you will use them.
The trouble I've had with small speakers and front ports is the amount of mid and upper frequency information that exits the port. With a rear port the mids and highs exiting will disperse at a rapid rate and you're unlikely to notice them. In a larger speaker, especially a well designed TL, a front port will have little mid and upper frequency information passed to it.
"Tim, won't baffling and a swiffer suppress the higher frequencies? Fully open cell for absorbtion?"
Yes, those things do help. My Aria, for example, could easily have been front ported but, like Gavin, I went for looks plus the fact that a bipole wouldn't go against a wall anyway. Suppress may be too strong a word, reduce is probably more accurate.
Got it. Won't the distance from the driver determine the positioning of the port? To place the port as far away as possible, while maintaining the desired length of the tube, if that is the case, or getting the desired reflection of the sound to come out properly? Or is the box designed around a desired port location?
Obviously if you place a port directly behind a driver (I've seen it happen) you're going to get everything coming out the port. Yes, move it away. Backwave compression will be strongest in the corners of the cabinet which can help load the port but you need to be aware of the air velocity inside the tube to avoid "chuffing". A farther distance will help, but the farthest distance may not be the best. I was able to do that with Emma, however, which has contributed a great deal to the bass response.
I have Polk LSi9 speakers ('bookshelf' but the 30+lbs each weight & big footprint makes one wonder) and they have front AND rear porting. Two smaller ports in the front and one larger port in the rear. A unique feature is a sort of baffle/reflector on the back of the speaker that hovers over the port. It looks like a wall mounting plate, but its not. It's a large square panel that is positioned over the port but stands off about an inch from the speaker's back. From what I understand its intended purpose is to allow rear porting while also allowing the speaker to be positioned close to, or against, a wall or shelf. This plate has a contoured cone that enters the port. It redirects the expelled air in a 360 degree pattern to the sides of the speaker rather than directly backwards.