Does MDF need to be painted?

Take them to your local Panelbeater or Automotive paintshoppe - they can spraypaint them with ie high-gloss black or whatever colour you like.
If MFD is well sanded and sealed and sprayed with high-grade enamel it looks absolutly stunning. See the Revel Saloon speakers - that is how your subs should look after a good spray-job.

Do not use cheap sticky paper or such rubbish...

Kind regards,
Dewald Visser

You don't HAVE to paint them. But, if you care at all about the cosmetics, it's a good idea.

Bud Fried's own personal speakers are in bare, chipped, dirty particleboard. He gave them to me as a gift a few months prior to his passing. I initially toyed with the idea of doing something aesthetically, then changed my mind. Don't want to alter them from what was his reality.

Thanks for the info. I live in Arizona and it is hot and dry here, but ocassionally there is some humidity. As for sealing with polyurethane sealant or something like that, do I need to do the inside and outside (in other words dis-assemble the unit) or can I just do the outside?

On the outside is just fine but you can 'flush' the inside with a kind of primer-paint... just pour a cup or two inside and swirl it around to cover all the inside panels and gaps...

Just imagine if they're painted a high-gloss black... mmmm...

Dewald

I once had a set of floorstanders from MFD sprayed with BMW's "Mauritius Blue" by a paint-shoppe - looked mighty fine I say!