Are exotic speaker cabinet materials overrated?

It seems to me in for the most part. Some of these changes are meaningless. It seems like these companies have to come out with these changes every single year so what are we supposed to do? Buy new speakers every year or every six months to keep up with some of this stuff, I don’t buy it. 

@hiendmmoe 

If your goal is crystal clear uncongested sound then managing the excessive vibrational and enclosure resonance energy is critical to that end.  

Using different materials like granite, aluminum, carbon fiber reinforced polymers etc. can be a means to that ends and if the speakers are implemented properly can give you extraordinary sound.  

However there are examples of speaker models using those types of materials that somehow miss the mark of a pleasing sound so exotic materials are not a guarantee for exceptional sound.  

Also there are speaker designs that use typical materials yet are braced in a certain way to all but eliminate objectionable resonances.  

Finally there are speakers that have excessive measured resonance but they are tuned in such a way to be inaudible or complementary.  

I just bought a beautiful sounding pair of open baffle speakers (Pure Audio Project Duet 15 Horn 1) that beg the question, "what box?" Efficient, upgradeable, and the money I saved by not buying Rockports or Magicos allowed me to buy a ski house and a Ferrari.

Always not to be overlooked is the fact, the Speaker is typically designed for and then tested in a space that far from represents a home living space.

A very controlled space is used where amplitude from formed sound is experienced once only. 

A home space will send an unadulterated amplitude and resend the same amplitude quite adulterated with a variety of corruptionss.

The listener in a home typically never hears what is the actual design for a Speaker, only a lesser version of the End Sound Capability is to be heard and assessed.

Speaker recommendations are very very precarious for this very reason.

Quality designs for a Cabinet, do assist with Driver generated amplitude being the only audible amplitude within the listening space. 

@avanti1960 

+1 Well put.