Appearance of Totem Forest

FWIW - we remodeled our kitchen in cherry. Depending on the tree and layer of wood used there are going to be differences in how it accepts stain. I'd say, don't sweat it...but I'm no wood expert. Just going on our personal experience.

How about just trying some different stains to lighten and/or darken the finish as needed? This seems like it should be a relatively easy, or at least not impossible, fix. As always, I am completely open to the possibility that I am dead wrong.

I repaired furniture for twenty years. It is not a simple process. Once a finish is on the product, you cannot simply stain it. When I had this problem, I would find the lightest colored strip of wood and work on it--you can only darken wood, you cannot lighten it. I would use masking tape all along the entire seam of the mismatched wood, then protect the rest of the furniture with paper, and then use a close matching Mohawk (brand name) spray stain in light coats to bring it as close to the desired color as possible. I would then remove the tape and spray another light coat of stain on the entire side so as to blend it all together. After this, I would use the proper laquer--flat, satin, or gloss to match the sheen. Then I would rub out the side to bring it to the desired finish. If they used an oil stain with no lacquer finish, then I had a dead flat finish I would spray over the stain. Each and every repair is different. It took years of experience to have the confidence to work on any piece of furniture. Sometimes it is better to just leave it as is. You will feel much worse ruining what you already have.

I've owned two pairs of winds, Two pairs of Forests and one pair of hawks...none of them had an obvious problem with grain matching. Are these cherry finish? Mahogany hides the matching problem a bit more. What you should concentrate on however is that if properly setup and driven, they are an amazing speaker..as in about as good as it get's in HiEnd audio, given the appropriate environment.

Thanks for the responses. What ended up happening is that my wife and I drove up to Montreal and met Vince at Totem. He took us into the warehouse and showed us what he considered the best cabinets they had at the time. They looked great, we got them a week later and they sound better than the previous pair as well. So a happy ending there at least.