Which material sounds better for speakers construction? Wood, Ply or MDF?

@soundsrealaudio

Harbeth seeks to control resonance by lowering its frequency to levels below the midband where our hearing is less sensitive. The difference is they’re not trying to reduce the amplitude as many manufacturers attempt (yet fail to do). Your argument was that plywood is a superior material to MDF, well won’t you be surprised to learn that Harbeth uses thin MDF panels combined with bitumen sheets.

You assumed that heavier MDF cabinets will have a lower resonance frequency. The reality is that it’s stiffer and will have a higher resonant frequency - toward the midband and often above 400Hz - not the best approach IMO as this is closer to a "ringing" as you might find in metal cabinets.

I happen to prefer the BBC/Harbeth/Spendor/Stirling Broadcast/Graham approach - whether it’s MDF or birch plywood, they all make excellent speakers. However, all alse being equal, for a given mass, MDF is less prone to resonance than solid wood and plywood.

Twisted login helomech....where do you get this Schiit.

Another illogical argument based on lack of knowelege of material resonance. Thick and highly braced MDF cabinets have a higher resonance point than thin walled designs like a Harbeth - usually in the >400Hz range.

In the late 1970's we made some stands (solid red oak) for the Mark Levinson HQD system in our factory.  He then asked us to make a couple of woofer cabs for the Hartely 24" woofers he recommended for this system.  They were made from 1" particle board rather than MDF, glued and splined, I believe.  It was so long ago I kind of forget, but I believe I remember the looser composition of the particle board when viewed on end.  All internal corners were braced with 4x4 fence posts using glue.  They were then covered with a light wood-grain Formica for looks--remember, it was the 1970's (!). 

The cabs (@ 5'H x 3'W x 3'D I think) weighed enough that a fork lift was needed to lift them once the woofer and hook-ups were installed.  I remember we went to 4" casters so we could move them around the shop.  I would guess the casters came off once they were in place in the listening room.  In this instance, the spec was for particle board as I remember.  Anyone remember these?

As for speakers, sorry to be grinch, but there is no way a cone speaker (except possibly these woofers) in any cabinet made from any material sounds as accurate as speakers that don't use cabinets regardless of the materials or design parameters.  Do not take my word for it.  Put speakers in cabs side-by-side with non-cab speakers and see for yourself, please.

Cheers!

As for speakers, sorry to be grinch, but there is no way a cone speaker (except possibly these woofers) in any cabinet made from any material sounds as accurate as speakers that don’t use cabinets regardless of the materials or design parameters. Do not take my word for it. Put speakers in cabs side-by-side with non-cab speakers and see for yourself, please.

I was under the impression that the purpose of the cabinet was to add to the richness of the sound, versus just the speaker itself. Just as the body of violin or bass fiddle adds to the richness of the sound it produces.  Is this not true?

As for speakers, sorry to be grinch, but there is no way a cone speaker (except possibly these woofers) in any cabinet made from any material sounds as accurate as speakers that don’t use cabinets regardless of the materials or design parameters. Do not take my word for it. Put speakers in cabs side-by-side with non-cab speakers and see for yourself, please.

Been there, done that. For example, the Stirling Broadcast LS3/6 sounds far more accurate and neutral than Magnepan 1.7is, and with more transparency. It’s no contest, those wide baffle monkey coffins are simply better speakers, but don’t take my word for it.

I was under the impression that the purpose of the cabinet was to add to the richness of the sound, versus just the speaker itself. Just as the body of violin or bass fiddle adds to the richness of the sound it produces. Is this not true?

Not true. The box is meant to load the woofer and prevent the speaker from acting as a dipole, which creates diffuse sound and excessive woofer excursion. Dipoles are typically less efficient than box speakers for a given diaphragm size. If what you guessed was true, speaker boxes would most often be made of thin tonewoods, which is obviously not the case. And no, it’s not due to expense. A thin mahogany box is fairly cheap to manufacture. One can get a brand new mahogany guitar for $200.

Most modern speaker manufacturers have a pretty good understanding of speaker physics, believe it or not. That so many here are questioning their use of boxes and MDF is baffling to me (no pun intended).