Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Custom Vinyl over default

Hi all

Just curious if anyone has ever purchased any speakers with a custom vinyl finish. My choice is Vermont Maple but I am concerned about the word "vinyl"..it just sounds cheap or maybe its my fear that the finish will come off. Is the finish just glued over a MDF type wood and is the default Bostom cherry..it that real wood? or again just over MDF type wood.
thanks

All Axioms are vinyl finish, other than the VaSSallo speakers. The Boston Cherry finish is also vinyl.

MDF means medium density fiberboard, and it's a typical material for speaker manufacturers to use. Usually if speakers have a real wood finish, it's a thin laminate over MDF. Real wood doesn't actually have nicely reproduceable sound characteristics, and is nowhere near as dense as MDF.

I have Vermont Maple on almost all of my Axioms, and it's held up quite well--I've had some of the speakers for about 5 years now. Of course, the finish is covered by Axiom's warranty.

One thing I will say is that the custom Vermont Maple finish is pretty similar in color to the Boston Cherry.

Most speaker companies use a Vinyl finish over MDF, Axiom is the best in the industry. The Vermont Maple is from their custom shop. If you want wood veneer, Axiom also offers that for more money.

Thanks kcarlile
very similar you say..hmmm..maybe not my choice then since I prefer a brown finish not red..maybe Classic Oak

Yes, I would definitely say classic oak if you want a browner finish. But you can get samples from Axiom--if it's like when I bought mine, you'll pay a bit up front for the samples, but then they'll roll that into the purchase price of the speakers. I had samples of light oak, classic oak, Vermont Maple, and one other. Of those, I'm guessing you would prefer the classic oak.

Thanks again...samples it is..

I recently ordered several wood veneer samples for the VaSSallo series speakers. After you are done examining the samples you can call Noreen for a RMA number to return samples for a refund. There is no obligation to buy the speakers to get your refund.

Of course I am betting that once you see the samples you will not be able to resist (they are beautiful) and then once you receive your speakers (they sound fantastic!) you will not be returning them for a refund.

Quite a system they have actually!

From the pictures I have seen on this forum of some custom vinyl finished speakers, if I had to do it all over again I would have gone that route. The high gloss cherry look simply stunning for example. All my speakers are the standard Boston Cherry and I have had them for a few years now and the finish is good as the day I received them.

It is. I had a chance to see it next to the real thing and it is very hard to tell the difference.

I bought an Epic 60 - 500 set earlier this year. I wanted to match to my entertainment center which is cherry. I ordered 3 custom vinyl samples - Warm Cherrywood, Sorrel Pear and Cinnamon Beech. I also ordered 3 different grill colors. The grills are interchangeable so (using Paschal's Triangle) I had as many as 20 different options to evaluate. I thought Warm Cherrywood would be the best match - but ended up with Sorrel Pear and Black grills. Couldn't be happier with the choice. I did agonize for a long time over the custom wood - but in the end I am glad that I went the middle road with the custom vinyl. You have to closely examine the speakers to tell that they are vinyl.

The custom vinyl finishes are very nice esp the high gloss ones, there should be some threads here somewhere with a few pictures of them.

High Gloss Cherry - VINYL

Vassallo - Wood Veneer

Hey Hay..thanks for the pics. The HGC looks much better than the real wood..although it may be my crappy uncalibrated laptop. Is the grain pattern in the Boston Cherry similar/same to the high gloss version

It's similar, but not the same. The high gloss really brings out the grain.

The color is very different.

If HG vinyl finishes are now the same price as matte custom finishes, it's a no brainer... and they appear to be, at least on a pair of M22s.

I have HG burled walnut (vinyl) Audiobytes. It's a really pretty finish, although I think it might be a little busy for a large speaker.

true..doesn't seem that classic oak come in high gloss though..I think that would be purdy.

It's a different vinyl stock--it's not a coating over one of the matte vinyls.

That HG vinyl is very nice!

There are a few HG Cherry pics under the link in my signature if you want to check them out. As long as you don't mind some light reflecting off the finish of the speakers, I highly recommend the HG Cherry or burled walnut finishes. They always draw comments when people see my theater for the first time, and people always think it is real wood. The veneer is that good.

Jason

Where ya been Jason?

Well, most recently, Jury Duty. First time ever and out of 500 people picked and only 30 needed, I got picked. Lovely.

Before that, I've been spending more time on other geekish passions, building a computer as I mentioned in another thread, working out (got through 3 rounds of P90x like we talked about awhile back), and more boringly, just plain working.

Mark hit me up on Facebook and guilt-tripped me into checking in on you guys and I can feel the vacuum pull starting again already. It's nice to be back.

Thanks for the pics Jason..that is one hellofa setup!

No problem climber. We do have a lot of fun in there. I've got a buddy coming into town this weekend and watching lots of movies at foundation-shaking volume is high on our list of things to do.

myrison,

a 600 AND an 800? Damn, that must be a wild ride!

I've been meaning to tell you also.... you should call your mom more often.....

Yeah, as often as all of us do.

Anybody have any experience applying their own extra coats of gloss on their speakers? I have some VaSSallos in Cherry Chestnut Semi gloss, and am now regretting not getting them in the High gloss. I would probably just end up making a mess if I attempted doing them myself though.

I have the same finish on some of my speakers (btw the real wood is stunning) and have had the same thoughts as you. I'm sure it can be easily done, just not by me, I'd take it to a pro.

Never did follow up on this as I'm not sure if I want highly light reflective cabinets in a home theatre environment. Perhaps anyone with high gloss could chime in on this, are reflections a distraction?

I think Zimm might be able to help you out with technique. He did some custom veneering and I seem to remember him talking about how to get a gloss finish.

Don't. Unless you really don't like the finish now, don't attack a good finish. I attacked my 10 year old black ash PSBs because I was willing to redo the whole thing if it went wrong.

I had decent success with a piano-ish-kinda finish on the black, but I decided to leave the striped mahogany exterior in flat stain, without lacquer. This was in part due to the appealing contrast of gloss to flat, but also because the piano finish process is very tedious.

You must sand down the current finish to dead flat, then spray-gun lacquer, sand, repeat about 3 - 5 times. If you are going to try it, I'll send you the sites I found with the how-to process and we can open a new thread as other might find it fun to watch.

Don't get me wrong, a great project that I really enjoyed, and like the results. But not a weekend project, and could really trash the finish on your Axioms if it goes wrong.

Consider this; keep the finish you have and build a shell like I did. You can line the inside with felt and not damage the Axiom finish, but you can pick any of a 100 custom real-wood veneers and cover as much of the old finish as you like. Here is a few quick pics, but the how-to are laid out on my Photobucket page, and the sub pic shows what a simple "veneer on top" application would look like:

Zimm the tool man Taylor.

Actually, I've had the 600 unplugged almost since I received the 800. I have a second/third sub in the back of the room (an Earthquake sub) that does a very nice job of evening out the sound in the room.

I wasn't able to integrate the 600 very well with the 800/Earthquake and just gave up tweaking it because it sounded great with the 800 + Earthquake.

I've been toying with the idea of selling the 600 but there doesn't seem to be much of a market for reselling a big expensive sub like that, so it just sits in the corner and looks nice for now.

Jason