Are exotic speaker cabinet materials overrated?

Absolutely not! How many Rockport speakers do you see for sale that aren’t a trade in upgrade to the next level? 

@hiendmmoe 

Wilson audio started their speaker designs with an emphasis on speaker cabinet material & the elimination of resonance, which was probably important for managing the two cabinet design of the initial Watt/Puppy.  This emphasis by Wilson Audio seems to continue throughout the decades until today.  There is measurable benefit, so, I would guess that Speaker companies learn from each others successes and try various materials to make their company stand out. 

My impression is that it is easier to tune a speaker in a cabinet with no resonance than tuning a speaker around a cabinet that has specific resonances.  So, yes, in general, cabinet resonance is a "negative" to the overall sound of the speaker. 

In addition, wood based cabinets can change resonance characteristics over time and atmospheric conditions, so, having the most stable cabinet as possible across decades and various atmospheric conditions would be a desirable goal for a speaker manufacturer. 

One reason my wife bought Yamaha NS-5000. 29.5mm front, 20mm sides in Hokkaido birch plywood. The exotic material drivers have dead end tumble generators fastened to the back sides. The woofer's rear energy goes into a ported bass trap. No need for batting. Wooden pilings have lasted for hundreds of years. 

Zu Druid 6 has an interesting wood composite cabinet. One of these days I will take my wife up to their demo room in Utah. See what she does.  

It is Worthwhile considering. When working with wood or materials derived from wood, the process is typically labour intensive, and depending on Wood Type used can be quite expensive for a Cabinet production. There is attraction as well, because used materials are easily recognised for being sustainable, which has ethic appeal to a Customer. 

Finishing Cabinets produced from Wood Based Materials can be labour intensive or mechanised, where the latter can be more cost effective, when pricing the end product, in the World of Speaker attractive wood grains and high grade finishing has proved to be highly sought after, there is no shortcuts to get this supplied. 

Working with Composites can prove to be more easily achieved as a mechanised process for both Fabrication and Cabinet Finishing, used materials are also not as exposed to fast high incremental fluctuations in market prices. 

Either way controlling costs for wood products can be very difficult to keep consistent, in relation to using materials that produce a composite design. 

Speakers I am interested in, are built by a very experienced Speaker production team. 

A Board material which is timber derivative material, which can be classed as a Composite was selected over BB Plywood because the raw material selected was 70% cheaper than BB Plywood and is accepted that it is offering nearly everything expected to be attained from BB Plywood.

I have accepted this material, as the knowledge of the Designers/Builder are pretty much up there with the best.

I have done my own math for costing what I class as the ultimate Board Matemial for a Cabinet Exchange for a future time, but only under the guise these are most likely my Final Speaker Purchase. My assumption is the used material being close to a performance of BB Plywood. Will as a comparison to my Board Material choice be somewhere near 50% of the performance. In current monies £3K ish will produce a finished Cabinet, with an assumption of a 50% improvement being a motivation to add to the overall cost.

Certain Speaker Companies are making similar decisions, maybe backed up with better justification for the use of a material. Additional to this, there is the need to create confidence customers are to be found at the marketing price selected for a product. 

Some interesting answers & opinions. Like everything in audio, there’s many ways to achieve realistic sound. I think most agree that the better quality crossover components used ( wire, inductors, capacitors, resistors, connectors) the better potential sound quality can be. Beyond that, the driver choices & materials & cabinet design & materials are all over the place with very good sounding examples of every style. For example, like many others, I’ve enjoyed Harbeth speakers w/ their very mediocre not too solid cabinets as well as Acoras w/ their literally rock hard stone cabinets. I’ve also really enjoyed Quad electrostatics w/ minimal cabinets & even enjoyed speakers w/ no cabinets as well as big, old Western Electric metal horns that had dynamics & sound stage like no other modern speaker could match. I think most everyone here has experienced this. It all depends on what you prefer & enjoy listening to.