Open Baffle. Why are they mostly limited to DIY?

Frustrated with what I hear as colouration from traditional speakers during a 40+ year search for the ’perfect sound’ (including expensive & well reviewed B&Ws, JBLs, Shahinians, Dalis, Royds), I started building Open Baffle speakers during 2012. Last year I finally managed to create something that sounds closer to reality than I have experienced anywhere else.

These are my own hybrid 3-way design based on Pure Audio Project Trio15s & are run as a fully active 5-way system in tandem with twin subs below 50hz, powered by HDP-5 and HDP-3 DEQX processors with multiple power amps. Crossovers, frequency, phase, timing are all handled digitally (although my preferred and most listened source material tends to be vinyl).

Imaging, soundstaging, transient attack and dynamics are simply astounding and I cannot find fault with the speakers, room or system regardless of source material or volume. Well implemented OBs can sound truly remarkable although the lowest bass frequencies remain challenging without assistance.

I love OB, but I did find most things, like the Emerald Physics line for example, to be way too expensive and relatively not-so-well implemented for my tastes. So I eventually moved into DIY. I'm currently still building a pair based on Danny Ritchie's "Wedgie" speakers, but attempting to add horns into the mix. Using OB ribbon tweeers and Danny's LGK mids (MMTMM).

OB bass is handled by 2 Hawthorne Audio 15" "Augies", but they are not so much subwoofers here as they are simply part of a 3-way design. Digital crossovers, delay, gain and EQ...(but not phase) all fully adjustable make implementation a dream. Then lots of a singularly good conditioning solution I've found thrown at the whole system that takes the "digititis" and more completely away.

OB bass here is great. It's true that it doesn't disturb room modes or neighbors and that the texture and tone are the best. And as has been said before, it turns the "duhnn, duhnn, duhnn..." of boxed designed bass into the "dahh, dahh, dahh..." of OB - waaay more like real music. When you hear that for yourself, you suddenly understand the underlying reason why it is that 'too much is never enough' when it comes to boxed bass sound and one key reason why everyone seems to be on that endless quest for mo' better bass. When the bass sound is freed from the addition of the "duhnn" sound being imposed onto the decay trail of a deep drum and the sound is likewise freed from the artificially induced dynamic, gut-level "punch" being added to the initial attack of a standup or electric bass line...then the bass instruments are finally and fully 'separated out from each other' and the real sound of each instrument is allowed to come through unedited. Then it can hit you that this level of transparency in the bass can, finally, be made to be Exactly on par with the transparency throughout the rest of the range. Search over. Only the problem of the lowest frequencies remains. Although here that has been far from any kind of deal breaker for me.

Since they don’t disturb room modes would it be safe to say that they are less picky about placement? Or do they need to be loaded in corners? 

Open baffle speakers must be a nightmare to design (bandwidth and cancellation) otherwise they would render all box speakers obsolete.

The problems of getting cone drivers to work perfectly in a box are infinite. Box speakers will always be flawed though some try very hard - Harbeth, Wilson, Magico Fujitsu Eclipse etc. 

seanheis1: Many OBs need space to breathe and should ideally be kept well clear of front and side walls.

One other comment about bass & the reason I use subwoofer reinforcement below 50hz:
Much live music is amplified through horn or box speakers so we often don’t hear vocalists or instruments ’naturally’ anyway. Even using four 15" OB drivers as I do, this cannot recreate the depth of live sound or indeed something as subtle as a foot stomp on some solo acoustic albums. OB bass gives the speed and transient attack of real instruments and correctly blended sub bass the final sense of realism.