Unbelievable

This is the big one! A hifi claim that nobody believes or defends. 

“Of course you can’t know if it works or not if you haven’t actually tried it. “

So there.....

C’mon everybody knows that that statement came from Eric at Tekton and it’s covered by patent # BR549

Impossible.  Unless the paint has a battery ;-)

The whole thing looks like a very poorly translated thing, I doubt Yamaha actually meant to say that in Japanese.  Something got clipped.

A little more from Hokkaido...

"The ear pieces are made from strikingly beautiful traditional Japanese Echizen lacquer-finshed Hokkaido Asada cherry heartwood."

https://www.audio-technica.com/cms/headphones/3c552629c6cf881d/index.html

Check the video...

https://www.fostexinternational.com/docs/products/TH900.shtml

Looks like the NS1000 from the 70”s...First use of Beryllium in speakers...I was at a Yamaha dealer meeting in Indianapolis when they unveiled them.  

Forget about the whole speaker paint...

"Luxman even hand selects the color paint used on the resistors to identify value and tolerance based on extensive listening tests."

https://www.musicdirect.com/integrated-amp/luxman-l-505u-integrated-amp-demo

"Piano black speakers sound the best!"

White piano sounds the best.

Moving the two foam pads on RAAL ribbon tweeters one notch, i.e. 1/8" causes treble, mid and bass relationship to be rearranged fundamentally,  far more than would be believed.  

Sony is more hard core regarding sound than most companies imo. One of the few that are not stupid to make such a statement.  Likely if we heard identical speakers with different finishes, we might agree. Also, testing was likely in SOTA sound room, and then I wouldn't doubt it. 

Hokkaido wood seems to be valued. It also depends what time of the year it was harvested.

"The wood for the baffle board comes from Japan’s island of Hokkaido. Winters are extremely cold, a condition reflected in the tight grain, hardness and rigidity of the indigenous maple. With the assistance of local wood specialists, Sony hand-selected raw maple logs from Hokkaido’s forests. The trees are felled in November, when their growth slows and the grain is at its tightest."

(from http://sonypremiumhome.com/pdfs/AR-1_Brochure.pdf)

By the way, these SONY speakers are serious business. Check them out, if you get a chance.

Duh!!

And you all call yourselves audiophiles?

Piano black speakers sound the best!

LOL NOT!

Perhaps they use a different material to apply the "Black Piano Gloss" finish on than they use for the other finishes?

MDF made on Thursdays always sounds better.

@MC- I’m fairly certain, there was never any plywood, in any of Oni no Hanzō’s swords or spears.            Did they even have plywood, in Sixteenth Century Japan?

Hi,
marketing mixed with emotion and uniqueness.
Lacquer alone on the front baffle has an effect on sound, less deflections? But is black better? Had to be translated to an acoustic benefit apart from visual. I believe they sound good though.

The whole list of features is overdone hype especially

• Carefully crafted laminated plywood enclosure made of Japanese white birch from the island of Hokkaido.

but I love how they finish the list with a simple  and very understated "frequency dividing network"

Unless they can certify the plywood from the island of Hokkaido was trees planted by Hattori Hanzo I would pass.

If we start culling out gear because it might be over hyped, what's left? Enjoy the music

regardless of whether or not the finish on the front of speakers can affect the reflected sound, the advertisers have probably never met the engineers, so I say go ahead and listen...