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

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).

I’ve oft wondered why no one has come out with speaked cabinets made of Smart Metal. Head tennis racquets used “smart” materials in their tennis racquets many years ago, that change stiffness characteristics in proportion to how hard the tennis ball is hit. Seems like it might be appropriate for cabinets. 

All speaker manufactures attempt to raise the resonance of their cabinets since low frequencies are extremely difficult to dissipate. Those bass busters deal more with the cabinet resonance from poorly designed speakers then from the waves off the front of the driver. 

Energy can not be destroyed. There is the challenge.