Which material sounds better for speakers construction? Wood, Ply or MDF?

Which ever material is lower mass would be better. High mass materials have a low resonance point. Very difficult to deal with low frequencies. 

Aluminum has never seemed viable as a musical speaker cabinet material. I don't think it will stand the test of time. 

Plywood is by its nature a composite material that has self dampening properties. When used properly this can sound excellent. I think some old violins are made with plywood. Not sure. 

I would say that because MDF is heavier then Plywood it is going to have a lower resonance point, meaning the MDF will store vibrations longer, much like a heat sink, and release it slowly causing a smearing of the imaging. Then by bracing in an effort to eliminate resonance mass is added, which again lowered the resonance point. Imaging ringing the bell in the tower of London as compared to the bell on a bicycle. Lots of energy off the back of the driver is headed to the cabinet.

Harbeth still takes the light approach with success. Not sure about their 40 series however, that may be to big a woofer.  

helomech

Tell that to Harbeth....

Twisted login helomech....where do you get this Schiit.

Another illogical argument based on lack of knowelege of material resonance. Thick and highly braced MDF cabinets have a higher resonance point than thin walled designs like a Harbeth - usually in the >400Hz range.

All speaker manufactures attempt to raise the resonance of their cabinets since low frequencies are extremely difficult to dissipate. Those bass busters deal more with the cabinet resonance from poorly designed speakers then from the waves off the front of the driver. 

Energy can not be destroyed. There is the challenge. 

Well the Harbeth " model " is the exception. The resonance of MDF is low but their cabinets are thin and " loose " which raises the resonance, so they have chosen to lower it.
In most speakers  low resonance excite the cabinet creating a very large driver. We can all relate to the example of a car with the stereo turned up load. The bass gets amplified buy the body of the car, the doors which essential are the back of the cabinet become a huge " driver ". The area of the door, perhaps 20 times larger then the driver in the door when excited will sound 20 times louder the the driver itself. 

helomech 

Not really I was just hoping that you had hit the sheets for the evening. 

Want to make sure vine gets his monies worth out of this thread. 

Back to the car at the stoplight with the music blaring. What I hear is this horrible distorted bass, a result from the back of the drivers getting the whole car excited and actually increasing the volume because the car now becomes a huge driver. 
This happens in speakers as well, get the cabinets excited and the room goes crazy and out come the bass busters. 

With monitor speakers due to the smaller cabinet size there is far less resonance of the box. 

Big speakers big problems. Cabinet materials that have a low resonance
are slow to eliminate them. So they store them and release them slowly thereby smearing the image. This is a fact and widely recognized.

 

I see that Magico has added a new M series speaker with carbon fiber planels. Carbon fiber is very light, read: low mass. 

They have tried many other materials for their cabinets  and now choose this produce. 

Perhaps there is something to the idea that low mass high resonance is a good idea????

vinny

Nice observation and thanks for reading them. Wilson Beseech has done more R & D into speaker and driver construction then any company I know of, perhaps all of them put together. On their website they have so much information.
wilsonbenesch.com

Vinny

What..........you don't enjoy a little ringing???