best wood for speaker cabinets ? oak,cherry, balti

MDF and cover with hardwood would be my choice!

As I recall, Audio Note speakers evolved from MDF to Baltic Birch for a reason. The drivers and the minimally-braced Baltic Birch cabinet are designed to work as a unit. The interaction has been likened to the way a stringed instrument projects its sound. While it might be fun to experiment with different cabinet materials, it is not how (and why) the speaker was designed to produce its characteristic sound.

As an aside, I believe that some of the older, original Sonus Faber speakers designs are made from solid wood. They used multiple small pieces, rather than large boards and just the sides are wood. The staves, as they call them, are carefully dried before assembly. It is a complicated process, more akin to furniture making than typically speaker making. I do not believe they have continued that tradition with some of the newer models - my guess is that they have moved away from that process for economic reasons.

I'm with GSM as well.

Always fun to experiment though I suppose. That's worth something....

I'd keep an eye on re-sale value though were I to tinker with an already well received and not inexpensive design, like the Audio Notes.

But I suppose, as long as you have the ability to take it apart and start over again as needed, or that you are open to living with the results whatever that may be, there is no harm with tinkering in the long term.

why not guitar wood? THe electric guitar world (some of it anyway) is obsessed with tone sustain. Strum a chord or a note and it just keeps ringing one forever. Now very nearly everyone feel that several factors contribute to this but the body wood is one of them. That said there have been claims about "basswood" "mahogany" and "swamp ash". likely others. sort of a back to front speaker wood approach but what the heck. another possible item of interest is that many guitar builders swear that the finish can inhibit the "breathing" of wood and a thin nitrocellulose finish is frequently most prized. the cedar and spruce tops that kijanki mentions sound like acoustic guitars and +1 on his thought that they would vibrate. I'm thinking solid body electrics with wood that does not bleed off string energy. At least thats the thought. different anyway.