What's your favorite speaker finish?

Definitely some type of maple: figured (curly), Birds-eye, or maybe quilted (though havent' seen that on a speaker - too expensive/rare). I have Aerial 5s in curly maple- very nice, like all Aerial veneers. I had Aliante Pininfarina One Zetas with solid cherry sides and currently have Aerial 6s in Cherry (veneer), which is also quite nice though I still prefer maple. Have Martin Logan CLS in Walnut, which is rare for those as most were black or light oak, it's a dark wood but nice with a tight grain structure. When I get better (and ambitious) at woodworking I will build a set of frames for them from solid figured maple I think. Have a custom solid-maple rack from a cabinet maker, with birds-eye veneered shelves. (www.bjtanner.com is the rack maker - Zoethecus styling but better quality).

For a look at many types of veneering, including many unique figured types (burls, crotches, quilted, birdseyes), see: www.certainlywood.com. Check out the quilted maple -quite unique! Cocobolo is a nice wood too though I haven't seen it used on speakers, but the Teres turntables use it for bases sometimes.

Personally black (of any variety) is my *last* choice of finish on speakers. So many components are already black, who needs more of that?

-Ed

I try to avoid bird poop maple, curly fries, and rosebud, but did enjoy Citizen Kane. Mahogany is my favorite but a better sounding and cheaper set of black speakers would be OK too.

Thanks for the great website Ed. Glad to see I am not the only one who would chose black as a last choice. Although on the right speaker (Wilson) black lacquer is beautiful. Flat black or black ash is another story.....

"I wonder how much of a speaker's price goes towards the finish?" Quite a bit actually, or certainly can be. I think Vandersteen addresses that on his site somewhere (or did years ago) and why he likes the "sock" look so he can put money into the sound of the unit. Thiel's CS.5 were an additional $400 (maybe $350, still alot) for the top four finishes on a base price $1,450 pr of speakers with the standard 4 finishes.

Personnally, the quality of unit; design, drivers, etc.; is first for me--the finish is kind of secondary (I don't want good looking but crappy sounding speakers--they're not hard to find). It also depends on the design. I would never want a pair of original Nautilus in Mappa Burl or any wood.

Here's some Beauties posted yesterday:
http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/discuss.cgi?read=217210

Merlin's red lacquer (ruby heart red?), and I generally like rosewood and stained cherry.