Rosenut?

There are many species of rosewood. Rosewoods as a group have a very high specific gravity, much higher than walnut. They are tough woods with a very tight grain and make excellent veneers. Very few woods are as good in this regard. As cabinet woods they are a royal PITA. They are so hard that you can not use standard hand tools to work the stuff. You can shape rosewood with rasps like Fred Maloof who in his own immutable style made rocking chairs out of the stuff. He made one for President Regan. The point being that real rosewoods are much more durable than most other veneers so one would certainly not be doing the customer a service by faking the stuff. Oh and rosewoods got the name because a fresh cut surface smells like roses, except for cocobolo which smells like crap.  Only Zebra wood smells worse.

@wolf_garcia   +1 on the rosewood trivia coming from a fellow guitar player.  As a tonewood used mainly in backs and sides of acoustic guitars, rosewood has a much different sound in terms of shimmer, attack, and decay compared to other commonly used woods like mahogany which has a "drier" sound typically.  I know after 1969 Martin guitars switched from the protected Brazilian to the Indian rosewood.  There is definitely a difference between the two.  Visually is most striking as the Brazilian rosewood has much more figuring and the grain is generally straight on the Indian.  I'm fortunate also to have an early 1960s Arne Vodder designed credenza made with Brazilian.  It sits next to my audio rack.

My stepmother owned a Brazilian rosewood Steinway grand...sort of a mind blowing waste but still...kind of like the rooms filled with solid Hawaiian koa wood furniture I'd seen in Hawaii. Note that Martin has been quietly buying those older Brazilian rosewood guitars like D28s, taking them apart and making fancier guitars out of them to sell for large bucks. I think a guitar can sound amazing regardless of the sides and back woods, and at a recent seminar with Santa Cruz's Richard Hoover (my cocobolo hide glue OM is a Santa Cruz) he said he prefers the sound of mahogany bodied guitars. Take that, big spenders!

I know this thread is a year old, but as a woodworker there are a few things I'd like to clear up. It is true that Brazilian Rosewood is hard and tough, but not to the point of being unworkable with hand tools. If your tools are sharp, it will cut just fine. Macassar Ebony is harder and more dense.
Finishing rosewood can be a challenge due to the high oil content. A seal coat such as dewaxed shellac should be applied prior to lacquer or polyurethane. Other woods I've worked with have the same problem (Padauk, Bubinga, to name a few).
As for B&W speakers, the veneer looks to be walnut with a red tinted oil finish applied. The Prestige finish on 802 D3 and 805 D3 is called Santos Rosewood (other names are Bolivian Rosewood and Pau Ferro) with a gloss lacquer finish. 

Now i'm paranoid that my rosewood veneers that were a $600 upcharge are just stained run of the mill crap. I think i'll buff out a section on the back to sniff for the scent of roses. could be a class action lawsuit here.