What happen to finishing speakers like furniture?

The best finish I've seen on reasonably priced speakers are the new Meadowlark lines. Beautiful.

The Vienna Acoustics line offers an example of beautifully crafted speakers. They use high-quality (real) wood veneers with a piano-like level of finish.

I completely agree that the Klipsch Heritage line are gorgeous. I've owned each of the speakers you mention, as well as LaScala's and all were finished quite beautifully, and lend themselves well to refinishing. While you are refinishing them I'd suggest swapping out the stock wiring harness with some quality silver wires like DH Lab for a big difference in performance. Also, I've found the use of various types of weather-stripping and sealant goes a long way in sealing up the enclosures on the Heresy's and did help the bass response. On the Forte's I think you just have the drivers to seal up. I did replace my Heresy backs with 3/4 inch MDF which also helped bass, though doesn't look quite as integral as the original plywood back. I haven't seen them in person, but by reputation and his chosen profession, Terry Cain, of Cain & Cain certainly would be one of the finest examples of applying master carpentry skills and solid wood construction to speaker building. Those who have seen his speakers have said they are second to none in construction and finish. Silverline also comes to mind as having an amazing level of finish and build on their speakers, as does Soliloquy (I currently have a curly-maple pair of 5.3's that are impeccably finished and gorgeous to look at).

Marco

The biggest problem with affordability on real-wood venner is the quality. Not all wood-veneers are the same, if the blade is somewhat dull in the stripping process it can cause cracks, also, knots can cause problems, and what might be a beautiful peice of wood for crafting a table or carving, might turn out to be total crap for veneer work. Most logging companys will sell wood for veneer but wont let the buyers cut in the wood, so they have to gauge the quality on the outside and endcuts alone.

There is also the issue of matching veneer, if yer doing a set of speakers you better use veneer off of the same log, or the pitch, hue, and markings might be a little off, and the speaker set will no longer maintain that "Togetherness".
Say you are making a set of 30inch tall speakers, and it takes you 20 feet of veneer to cover them both, and the veneer stock you bought is only 30 feet of veneer, well, you have 10feet left you can cover some monitors in, and whatever is left over is usually just conna be trashed as it will not perfectly match another stock of veneer of the same wood.

Plastic veneer is stamped out and you can mismatch stocks of the same ink stock and have perfectly matched speakers, plus it is way cheaper.

Just remember, that veneer-pack you can get at WoodCraft is usually leftover from larger products, and you will be hard pressed to find 2 pieces from different stocks that really match well

Real wood veneer is fantastic though isnt it? Vienna Accousics speakers look every bit as good as they sound, the also use a process to wrap the veneer over corners, which is not something you find often. I think lexus does the same on thier dashboards, and that is about it.

Peace!

I think you're looking for something like these. Link.