Speaker cabinet made of real wood

Well I guess I have to speak up....
Drew mentions the 300% improved stiffness of hardwood over MDF. to me that's a big deal and coupled with proper bracing makes for a very stiff cabinet. (using solid hardwood is not an excuse to skimp on bracing, we use as much or more bracing than MDF cabinets) unfortunately some who have tried using solid hardwood in the past had some illusion that they didn't also need to brace them and those systems have their own set of issues.
one of several advantages of solid hardwood is that with proper bracing and design a 100 lb. cabinet can outperform a 250 lb. MDF behemoth. makes it a lot easier to move around, eh?
as for the question on stability, I've been doing this for almost twenty years. building solid hardwood cabinets many of which have toured the world with professional musicians, and have very rarely encountered a problem with stability. when done done right and with properly chosen woods these cabinets will last longer than you or I. just look at well made antique furniture and compare it to ten year old MDF/ veneer furniture...
as a few have noted the real reason solid hardwood is not used more often is the cost. as to the sonic benefits, for me this is THE choice, but there are also many great speakers made from a variety of materials. I'm very please to see in the last few years a return to the belief that a stiff cabinet is key to good sound, several companies, like Magico, YG, TAD and others have embraced this philosophy while using different materials to achieve their goals.
thanks,
Lou

Check out the gorgeous Diapason speakers under "current reviews" at 6 moons.

Sonist

There are several reasons why almost no companies in the world make a solid wood speaker.

1. It's incredibly difficult. Wood moves. All fine hardwood furniture is made with joints or joinery construction, to allow the wood to move, to expand and contract. If you want to get around this, you can glue up small strips of hardwoods, which minimizes the problem of expansion/contraction (Sonus Faber) or you make a small speaker out of small staves of hardwood like the very well made Diapson speakers mentioned in this thread.

2. There is no market for hardwood speakers, as audiophiles have been fooled into accepting cheap MDF or now, the new fad for aluminum and other enclosure shells which can be inexpensively CNC built. There is no skill in that type of construction in comparison to the skill of a master furniture maker or luthier, by the way.

3. Audiophiles have no experience with hardwood speakers, so they don't know what they are missing. Not a great place to start a marketing campaign.

My company (disclaimer) is probably the only company in the world making solid hardwood joinery structure loudspeakers. If there are any which I don't know about in current production, I would certainly like to learn about them.

Jonathan Weiss
Oswaldsmill Audio

Daedalus speakers are almost entirely made of renewable hardwoods except for the birch ply front and rear baffles, the front baffle being covered with solid walnut. I believe that the internal bracing is also solid hardwoods.

I personally believe that Daedalus speakers and the Ulysses in particular, are also the most realistic speakers I've ever heard, can be driven by just about any type and power rating of amp and to my eyes, are beautiful. Of course, everything after the "internal bracing is also solid harwoods", is just my humble opinion.

Whether this has anything to do with Lou's choice of solid hardwoods as the primary cabinet material is unknown to me, but I expect it does. I feel like the cabinets are also timeless in their beauty.

By the way, Lou is a great guy and I know of 3 high end audio manufacturers that use his speakers. One is a well known high power, solid state, power amp manufacturer, one is primarily a SET amplifier company and the third uses OTL's and makes really good turntables.