??? What Is Your Favorite Speaker Finish ???

kawazinga

I don’t have a favorite.  Anything done right looks good.  I saw a large custom speaker in koa veneer that looked really nice, but, it took two sheets at something like $1800 per sheet.

Interesting question. Used to be strictly black (always gloss if available), but now I’m totally all in on walnut! Will never go back to black. For the first time ever I went walnut on my speaks (Revel Be) and they are stunning! I sometimes will just stare and admire them even when my system is powered down. What a beautiful finish/color!

It depends on how well they are finished.  When the wood has a high gloss finish that looks like glass, it can look amazing; likewise, when it has a very natural low gloss ting oil finish it can look equally attractive.  

Real wood lover here too.

Rosewood, Bubinga, Kewazinga, Cocobolo, Purpleheart, Black Walnut.  Almost any exotic wood species.  Waterfall and Burl variations are really cool.

Sonus Faber Red Violin. The layers of "varnish" on top of the wood contains tiny flecks of something sparkling... It is the most beautiful finish I have ever seen, on anything. 

Cherry trumps them all for me. 

Walnut. Any I like my components to have wood cabinets. 

Rosewood.

Cinnamon burl

Louis of Omega Speakers did a beautiful job on a custom pair of speakers in African Padauk.  The speakers match the solid Padauk cabinet on my Erhard Ray SET amp.

This wood darkens over time and becomes very rich and even more stunning.  I appreciate many different woods/veneers in different applications, but for audio gear this is unique wood with great character. 

P.S.  I just acquired a pair of Wharfedale Super Lintons with matching stands in Walnut veneer.  The quality of the veneer work and grain of the wood is beautiful to be sure. (Fortunately, they sound every bit as good as they look.)

I just ordered a set of speakers in Olive Ash Burl. They look amazing.

Wood: Cherry, Oak, Exotic.  as long as it blends in with my Stickley and Limbert

i'm a real exotic wood (not veneer) guy as well. any color but black. never liked those high-gloss, bright-colored painted finishes, whether on speakers or guitars.

Saw some Telefunken stand mounts in the 1980’s done in teak with cool fabric grills. Beautiful.

I’ll answer the question backwards. What’s my favorite Finnish speakers?

https://taipuuspeakers.fi/en/taipuu-speakers/

Dagwood.

I could eat a Dagwood right now!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagwood_sandwich

I prefer fine wood finishes that are on the "darker" side. Anything lighter than walnut isn’t my favorite. Even walnut, I often wish was darker (it varies a lot). White/yellow oak is the worst offender ugh - fortunately that’s been out of fashion for years. "Black Ash" gets a bad rap from all the years of BestBuy garbage, but when done well it can be quite nice - as illustrated by the Tannoy Kensington GR-BA "Black Ash" edition. I actually like this better than the normal Walnut  finish, since I think the svelte tall cabinets look much better in a darker finish.  

Not particularly fond of high gloss finishes. I get that many high-end buyers want their speakers to be finished just like their expensive cars - but that’s not for me (nor the cars, either). IMO the primary purpose of a speaker is to sound awesome, but secondarily its form & function is much closer to "fine furniture" than a vehicle that goes really fast. I don’t want my speakers to look like they go fast - they should NEVER go fast lol. Would you park your car in the living room?

And of course, you might also consider the wall material under the finish. MDF is gross and hard to repair. 

If you take fine woods away, then Magico’s aluminum cabinets w/ the satin M-Cast finishes look nice to me. 

Rosewood, Cherry or Mahogany or my current speakers are “Red real wood veneer”.

Now this is a lovely question! 

I guess I'm old fashioned in that still love a nicely oiled walnut finish. Because when you have speakers that look like this: https://tinyurl.com/3m3mtc5e

They need all the help they can get!  

Happy listening.

Yes the rosewood on my infinity irs v needs love and care but it's beautiful.had tyler acoustics do me a set of d 10 with the new satori textreme 4 x 9.5 2 x 6.5 and one be tweeter in rosewood. Sound like rockports. My next fav is aluminum on q7 magico and krell.dead silent no resonance you don't wrap these with the knuckle test it hurts.enjoy the polishing and the music

Yes the rosewood on my infinity irs v needs love and care but it's beautiful.had tyler acoustics do me a set of d 10 with the new satori textreme 4 x 9.5 2 x 6.5 and one be tweeter in rosewood. Sound like rockports. My next fav is aluminum on q7 magico and krell.dead silent no resonance you don't wrap these with the knuckle test it hurts.enjoy the polishing and the music

Rosewood, Cherry or Piano Black.

 Last August I purchased a pair of Legacy Signature SE in an exotic Cabernet Sappele Pommele finish. To me , they are stunning. First time owning a high gloss finish, and I supposed they need to be babied more than a black oak, but boy are they gorgeous. The best part is my wife LOVES them. Oh, I absolutely love the sound also....

Not a fan of severe or wide grain finishes like zebra or tiger wood as I find them a little visually distracting although attractive in an exotic kinda way.  I really like the reddish-brown Sapele finish on Joseph Audio speakers.

Last August I purchased a pair of Legacy Signature SE in an exotic Cabernet Sappele Pommele finish. To me , they are stunning. First time owning a high gloss finish, and I supposed they need to be babied more than a black oak, but boy are they gorgeous. The best part is my wife LOVES them. Oh, I absolutely love the sound also....

@winoguy17  Ages ago I had Legacy Signature III in rosewood (not gloss). The finish was stunning - they nailed it! Sort of regret selling those. Sapele is a lovely wood too, similar to Mahogany. I really enjoy woods with rich deep reds & browns. I trust Legacy is doing even nicer finishes these days. 

I have an older SOTA turntable with Koa wood chassis and that’s probably my favorite wood - it’s highly iridescent in light. But it might be too distracting over a large speaker, and it’s hard to get now. 

To me, rosewood walks the perfect path between coarseness and refinement in my pine/oak listening room. The rosewood speakers stand out sufficiently from the background to announce their functionality, but harmoniously so, whereas high gloss or metal would be visually jarring. In a different setting, with a different atmosphere, high-gloss woods or even Magico metal might be just the thing. Conclusion: my favorite speaker finish is the one that best fits its surroundings.

My favorite wood finish is probably eucalyptus though I don’t currently own any speakers of that finish. 

Any SF in the Wenge finish.  Stunning.  

Rosewood is one of my favorite for sure.   Never owned a pair in that finish.   I just picked up a pair in White Oak and I really like them.  

I usually go for dark woods but I actually chose Oak over Rosewood.   I just thought that particular speaker looked sharp in Oak with contrasting black front baffle.   

Best thing about a light finish is that they don't show dust.    

IMHO, a speaker is also a piece of furniture.   Piano black looks great, on piano,  but give me a speaker in Burled Walnut, or even Birds Eye Maple.  Acoustic Zen makes some beautiful cabinets.  

I got my metal magico right next to my ai robot that changes my lp turntable looks futuristic.enjoy the music. It also changes my silver discs.

What's also funny is i do have a pair of the book end b &w matrix 800 in the picture above.bought from aural hifi in Denver and the paul harvy ending is the waf must have been to get them into the house they had to be painted white to match the cabinets.mush have had Tom Sawyers crew white wash them.aural has a great wood working team that brought them back to life with a wood finish that looks fantastic.read the review on those one of the great reference speakers.enjoy the polishing and give us some great tips on keeping the wood healthy.my neighbor with the cad cam cabinet machine tells me not to use pledge.any other suggestions.

Apparently I am a heathen. Never really cared about the wood. Only the sound. 
Gun stocks is a totally another matter.

MDF

Furniture grade wood finish look fantastic. I really do appreciate the classic look. When it came to building my speakers, I wanted them to more closely resemble a hot rod, because these things are much more in that theme sound wise. They are painted candy blue pearl, with silver logos for the model on the side, silver leaf logo for the brand on the front, trim black paint for the top and black cloth for the top cover. The color will absolutely glow in any light, the sparkles will give off different colors depending on the lighting location, and they are glossy enough to double as a mirror. The look isn't for everyone, but it's damn fun for my system.

Automotive paint.

I agree about Legacy's superb build quality. I had a pair of Focus XD speakers in Rosewood and they were stunning. Unfortunately, the XD was too big for my room. Planing on a Rosewood Signature SE in the not too distant future.

As I stated in my prior post,  I love a beautiful wood finish especially when the speaker is a part of your home decor.

However, in my dedicated audio room, the matt black finish on my main speakers and subs is ideal for me.  In a dimly lit room only the sound remains and the gear fades into darkness.

Scientific fact:  when the brain does not have to waste neuron loops on visual distractions,  more of your attention focuses on the music!  I always felt good about the fact all my audio dollars went towards good sound in this system.

@corelli true BUT,you can always turn the lights off so as to not be distracted by a beautiful finish,you can NOT however make an ugly finish disappear in the daylight.

For wood Cherry

for Genelec Raw 

@freediver  Given my dedicated audio room has no windows by design, and the only thing I use it for is music, and I always listen with very little lighting, your point is  moot in my case.  The "ugly" finish is actually very pleasant and functional and maximizes the return on my audio dollar.  Now if someone has the resources to do otherwise, I would never take issue with that.

As I stated in my initial post, I quite admire a beautiful wood veneer finish and in fact enjoy that in two other systems in my home.  In those cases, decorative considerations come into play.  For me, it's all about context.

Like Grandma used to say, to each his own.

Wow in reading these posts never realized how many possibilities there are.

In my Audio Room: High Gloss Black, High Gloss White, High Gloss Silver, High Gloss Grey. Heck, I may even like High Gloss Red or Blue.

But the wood grain finishes to me, look better in a formal living room type setting.

ozzy

Cherry on my B&W 803 and Rosewood on Silverline.  The new speakers use Ebony gloss like Elac Vela or Wharfedale Elysian.

My favorite loudspeaker finish is the same as my favorite automobile finish: hot rod black, the color 1950's hot road enthusiasts (including guitarists Jeff Beck and Danny Gatton) use on their rods. I painted the enclosures I made for my Rythmik and GR Research subs with the rattle can paint offered by tractor company John Deere. The black color they make exhibits a very cool (to me at least) sheen half way between flat black and satin.

Birds Eye maple is my favorite wood, lucky to get it in my Volti Riva

Daedalus Poseidon - woodwork like fine furniture

Bird's Eye Maple is quite nice.  I had a linestage whose wooden case was made of solid bird's eye maple (not a veneer).  It was quite pretty.  

While I love a furniture grade wood finish, decor changes over the years have caused the wood finish color and type to clash with remodels and color changes. This happened to a beautiful set of speakers I still own and love but they have been moved out of our main listening room.

Gloss Black will always match any decor my wife chooses so is my favorite long term finish.

For the Basement Theater, matt black to minimize reflections in a dark room.