best wood for speaker cabinets ? oak,cherry, balti

Mat,

Sounds like a fun project!

Good luck!

Just wondering, have you heard what the speakers sound like following the standard AN recipe?

USually best to taste the soup before adding seasoning!

The one that looks best?

Seriously, you need to focus on what is best for that specific Audio Note kit.

Audio Note is a line that seems to focus a lot on optimizing the design and performance of their products.

Personally, I would not muck with the recommended design and materials unless I were really very well educated on this topic and only if I were very familiar with teh sound of the recommended design first and found a clear reason to change it.

Also, in general, there seems to be two key lines of thought that determine box speaker enclosure designs. One focuses around making the enclosure as sonically inert as possible at a price point. Most speakers follow this model.

The other focuses on using a purposefully less inert enclosure to help tune the sound, similar to many wooden musical instruments. This is a key aspect of teh unique sonic appeal of this design pattern.

I am under the impression that AN speakers fall into the latter camp. Changing teh cabinet has a major effect on the sound! The end result may sound nothing like the original if the recommended cabinet design is altered drastically. Denser, more inert wood or materials could actually work against you?

I think Br3098 and I are on the same page with this.

My question again would be has the OP heard the end product as a reference?

Hearing them first would be the first pre-requisite I would think before making any valid decision about how to improve the standard design, or even if that is needed or desirable.

No way does using "the best wood", however one determines that, assure the best sound. There is a lot more to it than that.

One has to expect that the engineers that designed the kit model in a high end line like AN have done the research needed. To take a different approach without doing all the homework needed prior sounds like a risky endeavor if the desired end result is a particular sound.

"Right now, I am not convinced that baltic birch is my best choice although I realize it is my safest."

Given that it is seemingly the choice of the people who designed the speaker, ie the "experts", I would assert that it is also the best choice for now as well as the safest until someone proves an alternative to be better.

How they would do that short of having done it and allowing you to hear, I do not know.

Plus, Audio Note is not a company known to cut corners with its products as best I can tell. If they know of a way to do it better, they probably will, but you will also have to pay for it if it matters to you, of course.

I suppose the other way to look at it is that if you use any good materials for a good reason, the results should at least also be pretty good.

But to claim "the best", at least to me, there has to be some proof to go along with the claim.

Hearing is believing!

BTW, I am a big fan of companies like Audio Note that stick with a basic good design and attempt to tweak it to the max over time, but also offer lesser versions at different price points along the way.

Magico Audio Notes.

Take the best of both worlds and sounds like a winner,
doesn't it?

Or does it?

Is it Magico or Audio Note?

Or something totally different?

Only one way to know for sure.

Someone build it and listen and see!

My bet though is the cabinet is a big part of what makes
Audio Notes Audio Notes.

And Magico's Magicos.

Each in a totally different way.

Interesting dilemma!

I'm with GSM as well.

Always fun to experiment though I suppose. That's worth something....

I'd keep an eye on re-sale value though were I to tinker with an already well received and not inexpensive design, like the Audio Notes.

But I suppose, as long as you have the ability to take it apart and start over again as needed, or that you are open to living with the results whatever that may be, there is no harm with tinkering in the long term.

"why not guitar wood? THe electric guitar world (some of it anyway) is obsessed with tone sustain. Strum a chord or a note and it just keeps ringing one forever."

My understanding that is in line with why AN uses Baltic Birch cut to their specs these days to help deliver the unique appeal of their speakers, but I could be wrong.

"Do you really believe that kit speaker was designed to have sound of it's own especially when before same box was called to be made of MDF?"

That is my understanding, but I could be wrong, though this is a common theme I have heard regarding Audionotes.

Tonian is another brand that follows this admittedly minority design approach using baltic birch, I believe as well. That is where I heard of it first.

From wikipedia article on birch wood:

"Tonewood

Baltic Birch is among the most sought after wood in the manufacture of speaker cabinets. Birch has a natural resonance that peaks in the high and low frequencies, which are also the hardest for speakers to reproduce. This resonance compensates for the roll-off of low and high frequencies in the speakers, and evens the tone. Birch is known for having "natural EQ."

Drums are often made from Birch. Prior to the 1970s, Birch was one of the most popular drum woods. Because of the need for greater volume and midrange clarity, drums were made almost entirely from maple until recently, when advancements in live sound reinforcement and drum microphones have allowed the use of Birch in high volume situations. Birch drums have a natural boost in the high and low frequencies, which allow the drums to sound fuller.

Birch wood is sometimes used as a tonewood for semi-acoustic and acoustic guitar bodies and occasionally used for solid-body guitar bodies. Birch wood is also a common material used in mallets for keyboard percussion."