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Vintage Audio Cabinets: Custom Woodwork & Design or Barzilay? Show em and vote.

Which is better Barzilay or CWD high performance stereo cabinetry?

  • Both Great, different eras, where can I get some?

    Votes: 4 28.6%
  • Both great but Barzilay had more choices

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Barzilay all day

    Votes: 3 21.4%
  • CWD (Custom Woodwork and Design) is the best

    Votes: 6 42.9%
  • What is this stuff, isn't that usually found on Craigslist Free?

    Votes: 1 7.1%
  • I don't know either but like what I read and hear about CWD

    Votes: 1 7.1%
  • I don't know either but like what I read and hear about Barzilay

    Votes: 1 7.1%
  • Who uses high quality cabinets for the gear?

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I prefer vinyl veneer, it matches my big speakers

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    14

Blue Shadow

Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
If you have some of these cabinets, post some pics...ok Galaxie show us that Barzilay collection, but we need some CWD cabinet photos also. These were the high quality cabinets in their time, 60s-mid 80s I guess for Barzilay and 80s for CWD.

If you know them both let us know the differences, pros and cons. If you don't know one or the other, we have a poll option for you. If you are just gonna vote by what you have seen on AK and such, that's fine, too.

Show us what you have.

edited cause darkblue94 says the Barzilay dates were wrong
 
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If you have some of these cabinets, post some pics...ok Galaxie show us that Barzilay collection, but we need some CWD cabinet photos also. These were the high quality cabinets in their time, 60s I guess for Barzilay and 80s for CWD.

If you know them both let us know the differences, pros and cons. If you don't know one or the other, we have a poll option for you. If you are just gonna vote by what you have seen on AK and such, that's fine, too.

Show us what you have.
Barzilay was still producing some high quality audio/video furniture at least through the mid 80's. I bought a brand spankin' new contemporary design walnut veneer and smoked glass Barzilay cabinet in 1986.
 
We sold both over the years. But to tell you the truth Mcintosh, JBL, EV and early Altec and Bozak made better cabinets. Barzilay was to flimsy and CWD was just to crude. Just Look at a paragon, Harknes, Patrician, georgian, Concert Grand. ML-4 up close. Even Klipsch with rare Rosewood, zebra wood and Ebony were better. And we haven't mentioned foreign brands like Tannoy. Anyone seen a DD67000 up close? They are fantastic. But today everyone is using metal enclosures for their top of the line speakers. There is artistry in metal, but I prefer wood. Its not cold like metal and is easier on the eye.
 
I have never heard of Barzilay, but I have a lot of CWD cabinets, most of which were bought in the mid 80's thru the early 90's. I still have it all except for a few shelves that failed due to what I consider to be a design flaw related to their "magic wire" shelf support. I'll try to post some pics.
 
@twiiii those others seem to be speaker boxes or component boxes not audio furniture. I know Barzilay did make speaker boxes but I don't think CWD did. I'm thinking more in the line of audio furniture.

I do agree the Klipsch used finer sandpaper than most others and their 80s veneers were smoooooth.
 
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We sold both over the years. But to tell you the truth Mcintosh, JBL, EV and early Altec and Bozak made better cabinets. Barzilay was to flimsy and CWD was just to crude. Just Look at a paragon, Harknes, Patrician, georgian, Concert Grand. ML-4 up close. Even Klipsch with rare Rosewood, zebra wood and Ebony were better. And we haven't mentioned foreign brands like Tannoy. Anyone seen a DD67000 up close? They are fantastic. But today everyone is using metal enclosures for their top of the line speakers. There is artistry in metal, but I prefer wood. Its not cold like metal and is easier on the eye.

Twiii, that cabinet in you profile pic looks a lot like mine.
Is it a Bozak Moorish style cab?

IMG_20180509_125021.jpg
 
I saved these from the scrap pile a while back not knowing what was inside, but they were well built and on nice heavy duty casters, The girl dropping them off said her father had them built but they were too big for her to use. When I opened them I found a pair of unfinished AR-5's that have been in the cabinets since new. They're in the bedroom now with a Sansui AU-555A, They sound nice.

AR-5_s.jpg


AR-5.jpg
 
got 2 more walnut woodmores today. Hard to find walnut in kansas city. Perfect match for the downstairs system. the 3rd pic is our upstairs tv room Barzilay/JBL system
 

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a start to get things right
 

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a start to get things right
whereas mine is 'I need to get back to the CWD' as this is an old picture before moving the in use gear to the side. Using this cabinet for storage due to the CL fueled gear explosion, but a few of those short cabinets would fit right in.

Main Rig.jpg
 
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Twiii, that cabinet in you profile pic looks a lot like mine.
Is it a Bozak Moorish style cab?

View attachment 1183025
Yes mine is a Bozak 3 section Moorish cabinet. I bought it before I bought my Morrish Grands. Originally it was used with just the Grands. Today it also holds some of the HT amps and the processors for the front channels of the HT system and some of the components for the Stereo system. As you can see I have had the cabinet refinished numerous times and totally customized back in the 80's and again in the early 2000's and again in the past 6 months. IMG_4152.jpgScan copy.jpgLong ago copy.jpg
 
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