Open Baffle. Why are they mostly limited to DIY?


I see a few hybrids from Vandersteen and Spatial Audio, but not much else. 
seanheis1
This is all interesting. I would be surprised if buyers of planars and stats considered open baffle, even though they all need lots of space and none of the technologies are known for being lookers. 

To your point, seanheis1, OB's are thought of only in terms of having all cone-type drivers, but some of the best actually use at least one ribbon, magnetic-planar, or similar type driver, usually a tweeter of course, in combination with a cone woofer. And many OB enthusiasts are also planar fans, some having a pair of those as well as OB's. I mean, planars are just OB's with non-cone drivers!

And snapsc, you're exactly right, OB ownership places the same demands upon one as do planars---3 to 5 feet minimum from the wall behind them.

One incorrect thing said above is that OB's require a lot of power. Actually, one thing OB users like is the design's generally high sensitivity. Many owners pair them with low-power single-ended amps. One exception is the Linkwitz OB's, which require not a lot of power over-all, but a separate power amp for each driver. A fairly complicated x/o is a big part of his designs.

@kalali  

They are also not very versatile and sound best only with certain type of music and certain upstream gear.
Can you elaborate further? Thanks.
@willemj 

and they need a lot of power
Not necessarily. What makes you say this? Thanks.