Large Advent with solid walnut cabs?

[gogofast]

I was browsing ebay and saw these. Looks like the seller has some other speakers with new cabs. Not sure if solid cabs are a good idea, but surely looks very nice.

 

[swechsler]

Speaker builders use manufactured wood products (mainly MDF, particle board or plywood) because they don't warp, and the density is more or less uniform across the entire sheet. The same can't be said of solid wood. With good quality veneer work, in theory a speaker cabinet could be made that looks exactly like solid wood, but isn't (I'm not saying that's the case here, just pointing it out).

 

[gogofast]

Speaker builders use manufactured wood products (mainly MDF, particle board or plywood) because they don't warp, and the density is more or less uniform across the entire sheet. The same can't be said of solid wood. With good quality veneer work, in theory a speaker cabinet could be made that looks exactly like solid wood, but isn't (I'm not saying that's the case here, just pointing it out).

Right, I'm sure no matter what quality the solid wood is, it will expand and contract causing some type of gaps or warps unless you keep them in humidity controlled space.

 

[jberger]

I'd also be concerned about what appears to be an obvious vertical seam at the same distance on both cabinets. It would be hard to find a single board 12" wide that was acceptably flat, so it looks to me like this was an 8" board and a 4" board joined together.

 

[swechsler]

Based on the text of the eBay listing, it sounds as if the builder harvested the wood themselves, so it's possible that they are in fact one piece.

 

[spicer]

Solid wood might not be the best material to make a speaker cabinet but those are certainly beautiful, kind of wish they had done the beveled front too.

 

[spicer]

Based on the text of the eBay listing, it sounds as if the builder harvested the wood themselves, so it's possible that they are in fact one piece.

Wow... that adds to it in my opinion. I wonder about the internal construction... braces etc.

 

[Kim G]

As someone who does woodworking as a hobby, it is easy to recognize that the panels are made up of two boards. A common practice to make wider panels than the width of the wood you have. Also, rarely does wood come flat, you have to do that in the milling process. Another thing you have to understand and allow for is wood movement. Wood expands and contracts with changes in humidity across the grain and looking at the pictures it looks like the grain runs the same direction around the speaker and shouldn't have a problem with gaps. Warps come from the wood not being dry enough ( or uneven drying ) when the milling was done and internal pressures released when milling. If he harvested the wood himself I'm pretty sure he is aware of the amount of time to fully dry before it can be utilized in a project. Walnut is my favorite wood to work, though I am not a big fan of sapwood.

 

[jberger]

Pointer to the eBay listing?

 

[swechsler]

There are two.

First

Second

I don't see any obvious joins in the second set, but further pictures of the first set show jointed side panels.

 

[Kim G]

Both are listed as ended.

 

[swechsler]

Both are listed as ended.

Correct; OP never said it was a current sale.

 

[gogofast]

Yes, the second set looks like one piece all around unlike the first set. Also agree that the sapwood can be troublesome even though walnut will usually behave better than other species - to me, the mixing of the sapwood looks cool.
Anyways, whoever did the cab job seems to have above average woodworking skills. Good to see these types of things being done - it's fun, at least to me. I have a several sets of large advents and KLH speakers. I was thinking about doing the EconoWave but when I saw these, they caught my eyes.