What's your favorite speaker finish?

I try to avoid bird poop maple, curly fries, and rosebud, but did enjoy Citizen Kane. Mahogany is my favorite but a better sounding and cheaper set of black speakers would be OK too.

Thanks for the great website Ed. Glad to see I am not the only one who would chose black as a last choice. Although on the right speaker (Wilson) black lacquer is beautiful. Flat black or black ash is another story.....

"I wonder how much of a speaker's price goes towards the finish?" Quite a bit actually, or certainly can be. I think Vandersteen addresses that on his site somewhere (or did years ago) and why he likes the "sock" look so he can put money into the sound of the unit. Thiel's CS.5 were an additional $400 (maybe $350, still alot) for the top four finishes on a base price $1,450 pr of speakers with the standard 4 finishes.

Personnally, the quality of unit; design, drivers, etc.; is first for me--the finish is kind of secondary (I don't want good looking but crappy sounding speakers--they're not hard to find). It also depends on the design. I would never want a pair of original Nautilus in Mappa Burl or any wood.

Here's some Beauties posted yesterday:
http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/discuss.cgi?read=217210

Merlin's red lacquer (ruby heart red?), and I generally like rosewood and stained cherry.

Fingered Bubinga.