Higher quality components (and the Ninja does use very high quality components) will always make a difference
That's a blanket statement that is simply not universally true. I don't think Ian would be using the crossover components he is using if they harmed M22. Remember that the M22 has been refined through many (hundreds?) of hours of testing with the goal of creating the least-colored, most neutral sound reproduction possible.
Alan has touched on it already, but I'll repeat what he said. In repeated controlled blind tests, pretty much everyone favors the most neutral sounding speaker.
I have no doubt that the Ninja components have great specs, but specs are specs on paper. I'm willing to be that what makes the Ninja crossover sound different has much more to do with the different design than the quality of the components.
