best wood for speaker cabinets ? oak,cherry, balti


I am getting ready to build the Audio Note Kit 3 speakers and have the plans to build them.I am a woodworker and have built quite a few cabinets.

I am curious to find out if there is a better wood to use for these cabinets. The original plans called for mdf but now they (AN) recommend baltic birch.

I am curious to know if solid cherry, oak or walnut might be better.

Anyone know?
128x128mattzack2
Most speaker cabinets are made from particle board. Usually a medium to high density particle board. You should not make speakers with a real hardwood cabinet. Real wood has a resonate frequency depending on type of breed of wood that can adversely color the sound. I have only heard one speakers made with real wood that sounded good to my ears. It was the Magico Mini II. It is made out of stacked marine grade Baltic Burch plywood. Plywood has lots of glue, resins and is very dense like medium to high density particle board. Even some of the most expensive speakers use particle board with extreme bracing and usually with very expensive veneer work.
Having been a cabinet maker for 15 years before I changed careers I would say that If you're serious about building speakers and are relatively efficient why not try building a pair of them from one of the solid woods you mention AND a pair from baltic birch and see which you like better? Or build
the Baltic-birch first and if you feel they can be improved upon, then build one from a solid wood you find appealing.
There's a very informative book by R.Bruce Hoadley titled "Understanding Wood" that gets into scientific/mathematical
formulae for calculating engineering data for various wood species, including specific gravity,stress loading under tension/compression etc.
Another factor to consider is that the regional characteristics for hardwoods do vary somewhat; Claro walnut is quite different in density than the black walnut that I used to buy in Mi. Red Oak differs somewhat from white oak, and southern cherry (from say, Tenn.) will likely differ in weight per board ft. compared to cherry from New York or Penn. I'm thinking you probably want the stiffest varieties of these species to minimize cabinet resonance- but I don't really know.
Let us know how it works out!
Al's example, whom does give serious thought/research in choices, makes me ponder further. His example in Daedalus chooses a different material as baffle for a reason, I'd assume. Violins and high end Archtop guitars also use spruce tops as a soundboard, with differing material, in this case maple backs and sides. Musical Affairs Grand Crescendo's are designed loosely as a resonating violin or guitar body. The plot thickens....
When I first got into the high-end business, many years ago and started to meet the designers, I was told by many that you should never build a speaker completely out of solid wood. That was over thirty years ago, but I think the principals/rules are still the same.