Why not more popular?


A couple of years ago, I got my first set of open baffle speakers. I've owned a few pairs of Magneplanars and many box speakers over the years, but my current speakers are the first true open-baffle speakers I've owned. 

I am absolutely smitten with the sound. Musical, dynamic, powerful, and an amazing deep, open, airy sound stage, with none of the weird boxy resonances or port huffing that I've heard from so many box speakers. 

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?
jaytor
Non-box speakers often have qualities that I didn’t think one could find in box speakers eg a certain openness, etc.
Non-box speakers:

—open baffle dynamics (earliest Dahlquest DQ 10), spatial audio, pure audio project, tri-art etc.
—electrostatics eg Martin Logan.
—Maggie’s
—omnis eg ohm, $25k space pods, etc
—Bipoles (old mirages). 

Clayton Saw (spatial) says his business is booming. If you like electrostatics eg Martin Logan, you like them, but they have been around forever and have nothing to do with the current popularity of open baffle dynamics eg spatial audio.
Interestingly, I bought a pair of bookshelf speakers (LSA) which have wide dispersion and have some of the same qualities
I have open baffle subwoofers that sound fantastic in my room. They seem to have way fewer problems exciting room nodes than conventional sealed or ported box designs. Probably similar to what can be accomplished with a swarm, but without "pressurizing" the room. The bass sounds more natural than I've heard from box (sub)woofers - I think because it is creating bass more similar to the way an instrument does. 

Using Room EQ Wizard, There are a couple of very narrow nulls at the listening position that are about 8db down due to room nodes, but 1/12 octave smoothing gives me response that is within a couple db from 18Hz up. 

My sub towers aren't small (three 12" servo controlled drivers per side), but the bass performance is worth it to me. 

https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8726
Hello jaytor! Open baffle speakers are harder to place properly in a room than "boxed" speakers. My big system features the Linkwitz LX521-4 speakers: open baffle, 4 way, one amp for each "way" (eleven channels total - a 5.0 setup) and it's wonderful. Try putting a rug on the wall (hanging) behind the speakers if you're having any trouble. Thick, soft and fuzzy is best. I have two other systems using open baffle (Magnepan LRS and DIY) speakers. I love them! BUT - when a person is looking at speakers, they see the raw drivers, no nice cabinets, and they see the price tags. They know (or can easily look up) the price of the raw speakers themselves and wonder "Why am I paying XX thousand dollars for drivers that cost only 20% (or less) of that?" They forget the cost of the crossovers (lots of copper, not cheap), the packaging (much harder) & shipping, and the cost of the labor to put the thing together. It may not seem like a good value. Professor Linkwitz called his best system "521" because he tried many many baffle shapes and didn't get the "right" one until the 21st of May! "Bud" Fried's (the father of the transmission line) wife complained that she could never invite people over because the living room was always full of wood boxes and sawdust from her husband's experiments. Getting anything right takes time and money and effort.

Done right, open baffle speakers (remember the Dahlquist D-10 and some early sand-filled flat panel Wharfdales?) sound wonderful just because there is no box, no enclosure colorations. Many audiophiles are men with wives; and I don't need to finish this paragraph, do I? They just don't look like furniture (the speakers, not the wives). "You're not putting that thing in MY living room!" can be heard in many homes! I am blessed with a very wondrful and tolerant bride! Keep listening!
Few things audiophiles buy are popular.
And even things that seem popular and acceptable mostly wouldn’t be so if the PIRC saw the invoice!