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


 Just polished up my Rosewood finished Tablette Anniversaries, using some Murphy Wood Cleaner,lamenting my stupidity for selling the Ebony finished versions I had 3 years ago & started thinking about all the speakers I've owned over 55 odd years in this hobby...
 Hands down I'm a real wood veneer lover..Give me a stunning Ebony veneer finish with Rosewood my second fav...I will admit though,there was something about those Gloss Orange Heco Aurora's I had that could bring a smile to my face...
 How about you?

freediver

Showing 2 responses by mulveling

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. 

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.