are those stealthboxes any good? Or are they just a compromise for those that can't install the 'real thing'(tm)

I don't have any first-hand experience with these boxes, but theoretically they should be just fine. A speaker in a sealed box doesn't care about the shape of the box -- only the enclosed volume of the box matters. I have seen an installation in which a speaker was put in a sealed box inside a door panel. To get the correct volume for the particular speaker, a 3" diameter clothes dryer hose, sealed at the far end, was attached to the box to increase the air volume inside the box. Apparently it worked, the car won all kinds of awards.

tanstaafl.