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


Im guessing they use mdf these days because its cheaper.

vinny55
Building a PROPER cabinet for speakers is more complex and costly than dipoles, and dipoles tend to throw a more realistic sound stage. I know this from owning Genesis V loudspeakers (to its credit, it did have a rear firing tweeter) Usher 6371s, First Gen  Reference 3A DeCapos, a short stint with Nearfield Acoustics entry level Pipedream 6 ft prototype, then moved on to Accoustat 2 + 2s, Magnepan 3.5Rs (and even though they had their own magic, both physically dominated my room. for the last couple years, I have been enjoying Emerald Physics KCIIs, which are as light and fast as the 2 previous dipoles, but the KCIIs bring better bass and more focused imaging, AND, they're super efficient. The amount of wood and the simplicity of assembly is something a DIYer should consider. 


A combination of materials are good - on most of our speakers we use a solid hardwood front up to 2” thick depending on model - with a heavily braced rear enclosure typically made from 1” thick MDF 

As with anything implementation is equally important

Good Listening

Peter
Baltic Birch ply -Russian birch ply 1-1.5inches thick on the front baffle 
1inches everywhere else, 2inches on the platform braces acoustic glues 
and real wool felt on top drivers , back baffle ,sides
acoustical foam on Bass. The Balticvariety ply like a laminate absorbs sound well ,and Baltic Birch from a colder variety climate the wood is denser . And like a wood instrument sounds even more musical when done right , time consuming ,and more expensive 
but worth it .Justgo to his site he builds  customspeakers around the world well into the $$ 1,000s.

i have made my own and worked with great speaker builders such as Tony Gee, who does all themajor Capacitor Xover reviews
under Humble home made Hifi . I learned a lot from Tony
10 years ago when I ran a Audiostore in Europe.
+1 peter.
I've wanted to play with composite sandwiches, as well as using layers of the same materials with different cut-outs to prevent panel length resonances.