Fleetwood Sound Company - DeVille Loudspeaker.

Considering trading in my Joseph Audio Pearl's for a pair of these at BEK HI-FI.  These are a lot of coin for such a relatively small speaker. They certainly are beautiful to look at.

They are good looking loudspeakers but the construction is suspect. I can not see enough in the photos but it appears that the top and bottom are cross grained. In localities where conditions go from very dry to very humid the cycling will cause the wood to crack. It is not a mistake a good cabinet maker would make. It is the reason that most speakers are made of MDF or plywood as both are much more stable than real wood. I am not sure if torrefaction would stabilize wood enough. It will certainly cause it to shrink to it's smallest dimension. But, on exposure to humidity it will grow again.

I don't know how the Oswald Mill Ironic sounds, but they absolutely corner the market on ugly.

Might want to check out their Youtube channel before bashing them.

Regarding the above generalization about wood speaker cabinets, I have Daedalus Audio speakers , 100% solid hardwood, in my case walnut. I’ve had them going on 6 years and there’s been no shrinkage, splitting , or any other issues with the cabinets despite very humid summers and largely dry winters of western TN. I don’t know if the Fleetwoods are built as well, but I wouldn’t discount them, or say another example, Viking Acoustics just because they are wood