Can Magnepan survive Wendell Diller?

@nd1der

I don’t hate them, I bought them back in the beginning when there was more attention to cosmetics, and I have the current model.

I’m pointing out the fact that when someone has a question as to why the current models are underbilt, the answer is always "Wendell says...". And I know that to be true because I talked to him 3-4 years ago about my homemade Maggie’s Little Helpers, he was totally dismissive, insisting that the current product line is "good enough".
Since he’s a marketing professional, where are his side by side comparisons to prove to us that he is right?
Make one as well as it can be made with current technology and let the market give feedback on what improvements they would and would not pay for. Because now that I know what an upgraded crossover can do for my speakers I am compelled to buy the parts and install them myself. However, I am on the fence about the frame material and it's lake of resistance to torsion until I remove the grill cloth and see what can be done with lateral struts to improve rigidity.

Let me frame this another way, since the topic has expanded.

Do you feel bilked when paying audiophile prices for a speaker that uses consumer electronic grade parts?

@audioman58,

I'll check out the Spatial Audio speakers when I get a chance.

You make one point for me: Is Magnepan competing with itself, or other speaker companies? They seem to be operation on the assumption that if you want a better speaker than the 1.7i you’ll buy their 3.7i; but there are more than a thousand other companies making high end speakers out there, so why not take business from them, and not the next level up in your line? 
I really like my 1.7i's, but now I have to upgrade them after hearing the moded ones. Making me do that is the quest to have the best product for me in this package. There is a rational reason to do this in a market based on taste and audio acuity, and every other hobby like this, from performance cars to instrument manufacturers companies of a performance version to the person that can appreciate those improvements at a higher cost.

@william53b I think you are missing Wendell’s point about affordability. I believe what he is stating is that Magnepan could make more complex and higher quality speakers, but that is not where they want to go, as the price points that they would have to charge would not allow them to be affordable to a majority. He believes ( as do I guess the rest of the folks at the factory), that what they are making is good enough for the job that their followers are expecting. I would suspect that this would be hard to argue with, given their success.
I used to own Maggies, way back in the day, I owned them because as a newbie in the hobby I thought they were great sounding and their price was easy on my pocketbook. I still think this appeal works for a very large number of folks who really don’t want to fork over mega bucks to get good sound. IF you want a better speaker with better quality and parts and maybe better SQ, there are a lot of more expensive options to choose from, but I see no reason to dump on Wendell, or Magnepan.