Are carbon fiber speaker cabinets inherently better than wood or metal ones


There seems to be a pretty big jump in speaker prices when moving to carbon fiber cabinetry when all else is equal (or what seems like equal). Is this because it is able to be molded into more acoustically correct shapes or simple the characteristics of the material?

sokogear

Nobody has addressed the more important question I raised. Does the malleability of carbon fiber which enables it to be molded into round or rounded cabinets improve the sound of speakers? Of course room acoustics make a huge difference in achievable SQ, much of that due to the shape/dimensions of the room. I would bet a oval shaped room would sound best, or perhaps horseshoe shaped. Is the same true of speaker cabinets? Can it give more of an open baffle sound without the negatives of open baffles?

Westheadley 

So If I am reading your response I would sum it up to simply say you know nothing about it. 

It’s a custom designed material used as an alternative to wood so probably inherently better suited for the task. Wood is wood.

But either way can work well if done right. Done right usually cost somewhat more.

Is that what KEF uses in their LS 50s, Blades, etc? I don’t think so but a big thumbs up whatever it is they use. I do not miss the wood there.

The Blades were initially intended to be made of carbon fiber but they switched to fiberglass, probably due to costs and degree of difficulty 

Carbon fiber resonates at an extremely high frequency which are very easy to control and isolate and direct away from the large and very thin drivers. You have to know what you are doing however. 

Carbon fiber in a wet layup application would be absolutely awful in this type of an application.  Now if one had a cabinet design and a mold so that this process could be accomplished using an autoclave, or vacuum forming utilizing a  prepreg carbon Kevlar weave in multiple layers, final finishing layer in straight carbon fiber with a 2 stage urethane finish, it would look awesome. Not sure about the sound though. 

To @sounds_real_audio point fiberglass would be 1/3 the manufacturing cost. Can be blow-molded or autoclaved.