Emile Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 Confused ... Always thought PWK used Baltic Birch plywood in his Heritage (raw birch) cabinets ... But; maybe NOT? Currently trying a "new" center speaker; a Yamaha Stage Monitor (SM12, 12" woofer, 14x8" horn w/2" voice-coil ... yeah; know it is "blasphemy" but pretty impressed with it ). WAF is 0/10 due to "rat fur" cloth on the box. So was going to build a cabinet for it similar to a Heresy.. A local supplier has "real" Baltic Birch ... not the "crap stuff" from Home Depot. Looking closer, BB has about 12 ply's; all real birch and all the same thickness. When I checked my Heresy I's and Cornwall I's, they show 7 layers (unknown material) with a super thin birch veneer Disappointed ?? Was going to leave the edges exposed (as in the original HI's) , but undecided whether to use real BB or plain Birch ply. (Yes; I will probably be the only one that will notice it ) As a side question ... my HI's and CWI's are pretty dark due to age and many oil applications. Think Baltic Birch is even lighter than (C-2 natural) Birch, so wondering if I can ever match the color Many thanks, Emile 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 It all depends on WHEN the speakers were made. Early on, Heresys, Cornwall, LaScala, and Klipschorn speakers were made out of marine-grade fir plywood, if they were "decorators". But the finely-veneered speakers used poplar lumber core plywood, the same stuff used in most large panel furniture of the time. Then they went to 7-ply (5 core plys with two veneer plys) custom-made "void-free" birch plywood for the decorator series into the birch raw series of speaker styles. In the latter part of the 1970's Klipsch got a real "deal" on some Baltic birch plywood bundles...in various sizes and thicknesses. They immediately looked for ways to utilize this stuff, and the first thing to get Baltic biirch used in it was the Klipschorn bass bin, where the 1/2" fir marine-grade plywood was replaced with the 9-ply Baltic birch in approximately 1/2" thicknesses. Most of the formerly used 1/2" fir marine grade plywood panels used in the construction of the K-horn bass bin were replaced by this Baltic birch, which stiffened up the bass bin cabinet immensely, in addition to making the job of keeping things "square" in its assembly process a much easier endeavor. Baltic birch plywood's biggest problem from a production point of view is its density and the multiple layers of urea-formaldehyde glue used in it. This causes it to require redesign of some assembly details in order to utilize it. For example(s), staples and finish nail guns are pretty much not gonna be able to penetrate and have to be replaced with other types of fasteners, AND the wear and tear on cutting edges, such as router bits, and saw blades is drastically increased, when using Baltic birch....sometimes to the point of creating more dangerous working conditions, as when the brazed-in edge of an industrial router bit explodes out of the bit in pieces ...or if one of the brazed-in saw teeth comes flying out while using a table saw. So if the construction process goes from using staples and/or finishing nails from pneumatic guns, to having to pre-drill holes in order to use wood screws, then you have increased the production costs in both materiel AND labor hours involved. 3 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emile Posted June 2, 2018 Author Share Posted June 2, 2018 @HDBRbuilder; awesome! Thank you SIR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pzannucci Posted June 3, 2018 Share Posted June 3, 2018 Great Info! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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