best wood for speaker cabinets ? oak,cherry, balti

Mapman
You make some very points. I am wrestling with my decision to use Baltic birch as recommended. My two passions are audio and woodworking. It seems that there are many schools of thought on cabinet design. I understand not mucking with the recommended recipe, but really want to gain enough quick knowledge to make a wise choice whether to experiment or not with this. I can always build the Baltic birch cabinets if I want to, but this is probably my only realistic time frame to make that choice.
Thanks for your opinion.

Mat,

Sounds like a fun project!

Good luck!

Just wondering, have you heard what the speakers sound like following the standard AN recipe?

USually best to taste the soup before adding seasoning!

I've been researching the same thing for the last year, as I'm looking to make some speakers myself. It boiled down to this...MDF is acoustically inert and doesn't warp easily....which is the main reason it is used commercially by most high-end builders. I'm not interested in using it for health reasons, and Baltic Birch Plywood (BBPW) is the second choice, as seen above.

Magico and Penn Audio both use a technique of layered horizontal layers of BBPW, and that is what I'm going to do. It looks beautiful, is rigid as all hell, and easy enough to work with. I built some speaker stands with this method last year, and love it. I'm leaning towards the PenAudio Charisma style for simplicity.

Let us know what you decide,
Mot

I'm an amateur woodworker also but I build horns. Still the basic idea of eliminating resonances holds true. If the box is properly braced it should not matter much what it is made of. I would only be concerned about dimensional stability with the use of hardwoods alone. This is especially important for the baffle that the drivers mount to. Most chose to build the cabinet frame using void free plywood, or MDF, and then laminate the hardwood on top. Not only does it give a beautiful finish but if you go 1/4" or thicker it adds stiffness. I'm not saying it can't be done with all hardwood, but I know I sleep better knowing my seams and surfaces are going to stay tight.

Good luck with the build.

Dan, you are NO amateur woodworker as your speakers and matching rack will tell. Exquisite!! Your choice of components, etc, agree in accordance.
Amateur comedian.....? :)