Why is the turnover on maggies 1.6QR so much?

I agree with the above, but also take into consideration the folks that upgrade to higher models. ie 3.6 & 20.1

Once you get em home and discover that they won't play "Alice in Chains" or "Metalica" for beans, people get discouraged. I hate it when that happpens....

I had 3.5 and currently have SMGc in my bedroom (very little use). The bottom line is that you get what you paid for. It is very diffcult and expensive to do full range speakers well. They are limited in both frequency and dymanic range. Limited air movement. You can't expect to get $5000 performance by spending $1600.

All of the posts above are correct. There are several reasons for this.

There are a lot of them out there. Because of their low price and high performance, I think many people use these as a stepping stone to higher end products. I personally am waiting for the right pair of 3.6s to come up.

Part of the reason for their lack of WAF and room domination is color choice. I own 1.6s (for the second time around). The first time I got them in black fabric with rosewood side rails. They looked BIG and UGLY. If you'll look at most of the ads, they have the black fabric. Now I own them in lt beige fabric with oak siderails. Now they blend with the color of the walls and don't even seem as big as the Merlin VSMs I've got. No, they don't ROCK, but that's why they make Cerwin Vegas. By the way, Sound Anchor stands are the way to go if you own maggies. This improves bass considerably. Now they ALMOST rock!

I also think that people try to under-power maggies. Doing that results in sloppy bass and a muddy upper bass, lower midrange. From my experience, you have to have at least 100 high current watts, but really don't get the full benefit of this speaker until you go over 200 watts. They are a fantastic speaker for the money as long as your musical tastes are within their capabilites. They don't do rumble-butt bass or in-your-face dynamics. What they do give you when set up right is pristine clarity, detail that is not edgy, natural tonality, lifelike re-creation of the soundstage, and pinpoint imaging.

I think one of the reasons for the turnover is a more generic issue. Speaker placement for bipolar speakers (all brands mag or electrostatic) is critical. In the proper place in the right room they are killer. Unfortunately I think the problem pans out as follows.
You: Look at these wonderful new speakers!
Wife: They are too big but they are thin so I'll live with them up against the wall....
You: Well I've spent a week finding the perfect location for them. How do you like the sound?
Wife: THere is no way I will let you have them out in the middle of the living room like that.
You:Guess I'll look for a new wife or new speakers.