Good morning all.


I'll start this story from the beginning.

My hobby is restoring old audio gear, its something that I guess I inherited from both sides of my family, in particular my father and my mother's father. I have a shed full of incomplete projects.

In the late 1960s, my father purchased a pair of Goodmans 10" twin axioms, a pair of British made drivers that were made as "the poor man's Tannoy Golds" at that time. He then carefully made a pair of open ported cabinets for them using the specifications originally sold with the drivers.

In the early 90s, after being used frequently, the roaches eventually won out as they often did with these paper cones and the surrounds and cones were completely destroyed. The speakers were placed in the garage and forgotten about.

Approximately 2 years ago I salvaged these speakers, still housed in their original cabinets. The cabinets were severely water damaged and had to be destroyed in order to retrieve the drivers themselves. The drivers were sent to someone who specialises in these type of repairs, and were restored over a period of approximately 10 months. They were improved with a new paper cone and surround, stripped, powder coated, the full works.

Following this, I came across Atisley at Creation Audio, who put me onto his Petite 8.0 horn cabinets. You can read more about the cabinets and their construction at his website Petite

Each cabinet measures 950mm tall x 500mm deep x 360mm wide. Weights about 48Kg each speaker.

The point that I'm at now, is I have these cabinets with a port for an 8" driver which will have to be enlarged to suit the 10" Goodmans. I don't imagine that to be too much of a challenge.

What I am after however, is advice on a finish for the cabinet. I would prefer a timber appearance and have been looking online at a range of timber veneer products. I have been imagining timber to the front and sides, leaving the back as MDF and ?painting the inside of the port black? I have used timber veneers previously, but not on quite as large a surface, and not on curved edges.

Given the time and expense invested in the project thus far, and the expense of the veneer, I have been hesitant to jump in and get started.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.