best wood for speaker cabinets ? oak,cherry, balti

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.....? :)

Manoterror, our studio constructed a number of sculptures from baltic birch plywood using a two-axis cnc machine to cut the basic shapes before lamination and finishing. It is very time consuming to work with this construction technique from a finishing standpoint if you are seeking a high end look like Penn and Magico. The best baltic birch we could source locally here in Tampa was riddled with small voids in the plies. Be prepared for a lot of filling (and color matching the filler) and sanding to get them ready for a finish. I also would think very carefully about how you'll be able create enough compression force to properly laminate the many, many layers of plywood you'll use. All of the plywood I've ever used is ever so slightly non-plane across any cross section of the size you'll use to make a speaker. We were only working in twelve inch deep sections with about sixteen layers and that was a challenge to glue up and get clamped before the glue started to set. I'd imagine Penn and Magico have multi person teams working the laminate glue ups that then go into a hydraulic clamping system.