Why not more popular?

The wheel has come round once more. Open baffle seems to be enjoying a little flash in the pan status these days. It is easy to see why. First, they weren't made for a long time. Someone is always looking for the next shiny new thing, and if it hasn't been around in a while it can seem new even when it isn't.  

Open baffle is basically a version of what Martin Logan has been making for years. They should take advantage of the current rage and make an open baffle model. Oh wait, they are already open baffle? Whatever. Don't disturb the audiophiles while they are sleeping, they wake up all cranky and pedantic. 

I've never heard port huffing or weird boxy resonances but maybe that's because I only bother with the good stuff regardless of design. There is of course no magic involved in open baffle. The baffle is not immune to vibration and resonance. Your ears just aren't familiar with the set of resonances peculiar to open baffle designs. Yet. Keep listening. They will be. 

And that is what keeps the wheel turning. 

My only experience with open baffle is my current speakers which are GR Research NX-Oticas with dual 3-stack OB servo subs.

Admittedly, this is a large system which won't fit in many listening rooms, but it certainly doesn't suffer from any limitations in the lower-midrange and bass regarding weight and authority. These have, by far, the best bass I've ever experienced in my own systems which have included some fairly nice box speakers from Revel (Studios with Ultima Subs) and Duntech (Sovereigns). 

I can certainly understand why the GR-Research products are less popular because they are DIY "kits", and are more difficult to sell when you're ready to move on to something else. But I've read a lot of good reviews of other OB systems, particularly from Spatial. From the reviews, these seem to have good bass performance, but I could be wrong. 

I've heard good things about the GT Audioworks and Diesis speakers as well, but these are priced beyond most people's budgets. 

As I noted in my OP, I've owned a few Magneplanar speakers and always like the presentation, but these did lack in dynamics and weight for my taste which is why I never stuck with them for more than a few years. But that certainly isn't the case with my current speakers. 

OP so we are clear the NX-Oticas are a long ways into Dannys speaker making career. Some of the early OB that GR had dealings with, it took a football field to get them to sound OK. The later stuff and Danny’s personal growth has certainly helped.. He’s not too thick headed, BUT thick headed enough to stick with OB and finally come up with some pretty good speaker kits. His OB servos are the bomb.

I think a little different than most, but GR makes a GREAT product.. and intergrated well with MY type of system..

GR likes OB dipole, I like Dipole speakers, just not OB monitors. I like about 20" between front and back poles... I don’t like to mirror drivers either. Just because there is 5 in the front baffle doesn’t mean there needs to be 5 on the rear baffle pole..

I had 123s mercy... what a nightmare. They set more than they were EVER played.. They were so song specific.. THEN HEAVEN.. Weird..

Regards

I have owned spatial audio before and may buy their new X 3,x5 series  the only unknown is who makes the Tweeter- mid AMT unit 
once that ? Is known then I will consider on buying them .
hopefully not made  in China !!

What I don’t understand is why there are so few speaker companies making open baffle speakers, and why are they not more popular among audiophiles?

Because we all hear differently, have different tastes, different rooms and different systems. Different companies have different technologies or design philosophies they want to feature.

If I could listen to every speaker out there in my room, with my electronics I would probably end up with a different pair of speakers than what I have. Different electronics too. Since I have to buy something in order to listen to it, and I buy used for that reason, my selection is pretty dramatically restricted. Most of us here are probably in the same situation. So we end up with the best that we can do, not necessarily the best possible.