Check this out

In addition to the 4-way (or maybe 6-way?) grain variation, Teres saturates each piece of wood in an epoxy bath before assembling them. The W.E.S.T. process Tom referred to. I'd love to watch them make these too.

Doug, I really should have said multi-directional laminating.

Again, I am not questioning the performance of the Teres tables, as I have heard them and they sound great. I do, however, have some concerns for 5-10 years down the road with respect to the platter. Sincerest wishes to all users that my concerns are unfounded.

I would agree with several others above who have expressed their scepticism about the stability of a wood base over time. Wood is notoriously uneven in density and swells and shrinks tremendously with changes in humidity. In the Northeast, the average home is drier than the Sahara in the winter. Even if treated with chemicals, I don't think you can make wood perfectly stable. Woodworkers who make carved bowls often soak the wood in a chemical called PEG which replaces the water in the cell structure and limits the wood movement but even that can't eliminate it 100%. So why build a base from solid hardwood? It's just marketing hype IMHO. Acrylic or MDF with a pretty wood veneer would be better.

Jyprez, after using many TTs with MDF or acrylic bases, I might agree that they may be stable, but they don't sound anywhere near as good. This was really shown to me in a big way, when I upgraded my Teres from the acrylic base to the lead-shot loaded Cocobolo base. Everything else in the TT remained the same: same bearing, platter, feet, arm, motor. All I did was replace the base on my existing Teres 135 with the base of the 245 model. Even the thickness and shape was the same as the previous acrylic base. The difference was too much to believe. Simply the material choices created such a staggering improvement, that I understood forever how much these materials play a role in the sound. I'll never go back to an acrylic TT.

Jyprez,

I live in New Hampshire, so I completely agree with your assessment of the changes in relative humidity and the effects that has on wood and furniture. However, I would say that the wooden bowl makers that you mention have a restriction of what treatments they can use in that these treatments must be non-toxic. There is no such restriction on boat building, which is where this process comes from. I don't have near the experience in woodworking as 4yanks, but it seems to me that if the process completely soaks the wood in epoxy then the platter may not be subjected to changes in relative humidity at all as would the plinth. Another thing to consider is that not all species of wood change exactly the same way due to humidity. Having said all this, I too am curious to see how these platters hold up.
The possible improvement of sound due to a hardwood base seems plausible to me since many instruments are made from highly selected wood samples and are themselves very susceptible to tuning changes due to weather conditions. But I admit I have never heard a solid hardwood plinth.