best wood for speaker cabinets ? oak,cherry, balti

Manoterror, our studio constructed a number of sculptures from baltic birch plywood using a two-axis cnc machine to cut the basic shapes before lamination and finishing. It is very time consuming to work with this construction technique from a finishing standpoint if you are seeking a high end look like Penn and Magico. The best baltic birch we could source locally here in Tampa was riddled with small voids in the plies. Be prepared for a lot of filling (and color matching the filler) and sanding to get them ready for a finish. I also would think very carefully about how you'll be able create enough compression force to properly laminate the many, many layers of plywood you'll use. All of the plywood I've ever used is ever so slightly non-plane across any cross section of the size you'll use to make a speaker. We were only working in twelve inch deep sections with about sixteen layers and that was a challenge to glue up and get clamped before the glue started to set. I'd imagine Penn and Magico have multi person teams working the laminate glue ups that then go into a hydraulic clamping system.

Mattzack2, you have received a lot of advice from guys who don't seem to understand Audio Note's speaker design technology. As you undoubtedly know, Audio Note speakers are upgraded versions of Peter Snell's original designs. Snell built his K, J and E speakers out of fibreboard (not MDF) for cost reasons and also because that the current vogue in speaker design.

After offering what were virtually copies of the Snell designs for years, Peter Qvortrup of Audio Note UK decided that the speakers sound better using resonant plywood cabinets. Audio Note eventually settled on a particular thickness and grade of Baltic birchwood that they believe sounds best.

I have helped a few friends build Audio Note kit speakers, some using factory cabinets and some using home made boxes. I can tell you from experience that the home made cabinets did not sound the same as the factory cabinets. Not worse, not better, just different. My unsolicited advise is if you want your speaker to sound like Audio Note speakers, either order the cabinets pre-made from Brian or get the plans and build them as closely as possible to the specs.

If it were me, I would not bother experimenting with MDF or any other wood product. It might sound better, but (again in my experience) probably not.

I think Br3098 and I are on the same page with this.

My question again would be has the OP heard the end product as a reference?

Hearing them first would be the first pre-requisite I would think before making any valid decision about how to improve the standard design, or even if that is needed or desirable.

No way does using "the best wood", however one determines that, assure the best sound. There is a lot more to it than that.

One has to expect that the engineers that designed the kit model in a high end line like AN have done the research needed. To take a different approach without doing all the homework needed prior sounds like a risky endeavor if the desired end result is a particular sound.

I guess my theory is that it is possible that baltic birch is used in part for its cost, weight and ease of manufacturing in the cabinet process.

I agree with starting this without being better informed is not the best strategy. I was hoping to hear that cost being no object, baltic birch was the best way to go. I have not heard that yet.

Another question asked was whether I have heard these speakers at all. No, I have not. I tried to find someone with a pair in the Chicago area, and have had no success.

I am willing to take a chance after gathering more info as I can always build the baltic birch cabinets if I need to. Right now, I am not convinced that baltic birch is my best choice although I realize it is my safest.

Again, if anyone in the Chicago area has any Audio Note speakers that I can listen to, I would be most grateful.

"Right now, I am not convinced that baltic birch is my best choice although I realize it is my safest."

Given that it is seemingly the choice of the people who designed the speaker, ie the "experts", I would assert that it is also the best choice for now as well as the safest until someone proves an alternative to be better.

How they would do that short of having done it and allowing you to hear, I do not know.

Plus, Audio Note is not a company known to cut corners with its products as best I can tell. If they know of a way to do it better, they probably will, but you will also have to pay for it if it matters to you, of course.

I suppose the other way to look at it is that if you use any good materials for a good reason, the results should at least also be pretty good.

But to claim "the best", at least to me, there has to be some proof to go along with the claim.

Hearing is believing!

BTW, I am a big fan of companies like Audio Note that stick with a basic good design and attempt to tweak it to the max over time, but also offer lesser versions at different price points along the way.