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Baltic ply for speaker cabinets?

S

steveinspain

pfm Member
I'm hoping to have a winter project building some cabinets and keep on reading about Baltic ply, but so far I've not been able to find anyone that actually sells the stuff.
Birch ply seems to be all the rage.
Can anyone suggest a timber yard that sells it, cut to exact size and delivered in the UK ?
 
Richard Lines said:
Sources for Baltic Birch - any use?

Regards

Richard
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YES !
Thank you. Seems that I wasn't the only one to ask this so maybe I wasn't being a total fool.
I asked at all my local builders merchants only to be told 'It's all the same Mate' or just blank looks.

I've just had a reply from one company (Peter Benson, who are based well up north from Cornwall) who only deliver locally, but can arrange it (delivery) for £670+vat.....
 
It's very expensive (and very lovely). It's not widely used for speaker cabinets because it's lovely enough to resonate/ring/vibrate, whereas many speaker designs want the cabinet to be as dead as possible (and because it's expensive, obvs).

This guys uses it to make fancy record deck plinths.

 
Widely used in speaker construction but very spendy these days, lots of substitutes available with birch faced or eucalyptus but not a patch on the real deal.
 
Baltic birch now seems to refer to non-Chinese. Back in the 70s, Baltic meant non-Russian, but now appears to include it. They could be very different, Finnish being heavy and oily, but looked boring, but Russian was lighter and fluffier but much prettier. Who knows these days? I used each according to my needs.
 
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Good luck. Good birch ply isn't cheap any more since RU/Ukraine, certainly knocked on the head various DIY woodworking projects I had in mind.
 
Plywood is a minefield. Many who sell it don't understand it or know what they are selling. I'm pretty confused myself now because every time I order it I get something different and the merchants just treat you like you are daft; "It's all the same stuff mate".
I've resorted to touring the merchants and buying/loading stuff that looks OK myself onto a trailer. Adds a hell of a lot of time and hassle to a project. The proper Birch ply looks lovely stuff though. I remember it seemed to be used a lot in "modern" school furniture when I were a lad.
 
I've used "marine ply" for building several things, and it seems much better quality than anything else I've seen. There are no holes in any of the layers, the glue is supposed to be better, and it just looks and feels nicer (and heavier). Much more expensive, about 60% more than the ordinary kinds.
Don't know if it would be good for speaker cabinets, though. Just a thought.
But here, too, my carpenter friend says you have to be careful because it is not all the same quality.
 
A long time ago (maybe 15 years ago) I bought some wood described as Russian ply (in London). I measured it's damping factor, as 0.04 .That's about twice that of mdf, but still way behind chipboard at 0.23 .

Have we moved on, or are we suffering from production costs which impinge on sound quality?
 
Helen Bach said:
A long time ago (maybe 15 years ago) I bought some wood described as Russian ply (in London). I measured it's damping factor, as 0.04 .That's about twice that of mdf, but still way behind chipboard at 0.23 .

Have we moved on, or are we suffering from production costs which impinge on sound quality?
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This ^. Around 1976 I built identical cabinets using MDF (Medite) and 700kgm/cu.m flooring chip*. The chip versions sounded noticeably better. But manufacturers can calculate how long their cutters will last with MDF, and the edges can be simply sealed and painted.
If I could still get that chipboard I wouldn't bother with MDF, except for kitchen cabinets and shelves.
* It had 5 distinct layers, fine/coarse/fine/coarse/fine.
EDIT; kgm/m3 not gm/m3!
 
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^^^ my experience, too. BUT, there are many kinds of chipboard (particle board), and I don't know which one I had! I don't know what to recommend these days, as people have different criteria to fulfill, sometimes it's just aesthetics.
 
Helen Bach said:
^^^ my experience, too. BUT, there are many kinds of chipboard (particle board), and I don't know which one I had! I don't know what to recommend these days, as people have different criteria to fulfill, sometimes it's just aesthetics.
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I am currently planning to veneer my cabinets so don't care too much about appearances but have never seen chipboard being used (not that I'm any sort of expert in cabinet building) I may have to investigate a little bit so if you have any further information I'd be grateful!
 
I've veneered MDF, chipboard and ordinary ply. All are fine.

Not sure how large your boxes are, but the construction type matters much more than the material IME. I'm very pleased with the construction of my DiscoCATs which use plywood out of a skip. I will probaby add a 3rd layer of ply inside using some slanted pieces to get rid of any parallel surfaces.
 
I built chipboard cabinets for a KEF kit back in the day. I doubled up the baffle thickness - so ended up 1.5" thick there. They sounded great and I used them for many years. It was sealed design - I do not remember where from. My mother made some fabric covers that were pulled over some thin foam - so they were effectively 'upholstered' in a black fabric. Of course, I had fashionable orange fabric for the front cover! - I can't quite remember how that was fitted - vague memories of thin magnets on the baffle.
 
steveinspain said:
I am currently planning to veneer my cabinets so don't care too much about appearances but have never seen chipboard being used (not that I'm any sort of expert in cabinet building) I may have to investigate a little bit so if you have any further information I'd be grateful!
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Chipboard was the material used in the sixties/seventies. This was eventually replaced with mdf for a couple of reasons, including machine ability. Apart from ply, mdf seems to be expected, these days (even used as a selling point.. or not!). I have a pair of three-way 'speakers made of chipboard and closed box loading (from the '60's). Don't like mdf/reflex loaded, too much boom boom for me.
 
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