Hey Dave...

[Trench]

...everyone's in agreement that Ascend sound great. And I know that you said, in effect, "Why should speakers look like furniture? The a/v components don't..." But I'm salivating over the offerings at av123.com, the Rockets -- but the center is HUGE and the surrounds are dipoles, eh. Why not offer your great speakers in wood for those who would pay extra for it? I bought a UFW-10 in maple over there and it looks great. I'd love to have maple speakers to complete the set... why not offer more expensive for those who will pay? I suspect a lot of people would buy. Just two cents.

[bikeman]

One off customs are very expensive. Owning a factory in China that produces tens of thousands of cabinets a year cuts the cost to a fraction of one-offs. That in a nut shell is the reason. Mabye Dave F. can provide more info.

David

[Trench]

One off customs are very expensive. Owning a factory in China that produces tens of thousands of cabinets a year cuts the cost to a fraction of one-offs. That in a nut shell is the reason. Mabye Dave F. can provide more info.

David

Thanks. I wasn't talking at all about one-offs, but rather a new line of wood cabinets at a higher cost.

[Quinn]

You can get a raw MDF cabinet and have someone veneer it for you. But the rounded edges that are part of how good the Ascends are are hard to veneer.

BTW- You'd need to step up the the Onix Ref 1 to compete with the 170SE's sound quality.

[davef]

Hi Trench,

Welcome to forum!

It all comes down to what you (customers) are willing to spend for such a finish. Our products use some of the highest quality / highest performing components available... The price increase would be significant.

The real question is how much are you willing to spend for such a finish? Would you be willing to pay somewhere in the ballpark of $550/pr for furniture grade CBM-170SE? Especially considering that for a few dollars more you can have a pair of CMT-340 SE in our standard finish?

Even at around $550/pr in a furniture grade finish, the CBM-170 SE would offer an incredible value... I *still* have been unable to find a loudspeaker that uses SEAS tweeters for anywhere near this price -- in any style finish..

Tough call on this one -- and something that I re-examine often.

[scoobydufus]

Just my 2 cents.... I understand and appreciate your strategy or philosophy of providing a stellar performer at lowest possible price by cutting out the costs that really don't matter (such as cosmetic appearance). However, I would question whether or not you're actually losing some potential customers by not at least offering hi-quality veneer finishes. Sure it may be a significant adder, but people know that they're getting a damn good performing speaker and some of them may very likely be willing to pay for quality finish to match it's performance.

Of course, I'm sure there are extra hassles and costs from a business standpoint by offering other finish options, but I wouldn't think they would outweigh the potential gains. Or do they?

[BradJudy]

Dave,

You know I would buy them or perhaps, at this point, I would have bought them. Actually, if you offered a nice veneer finish for the 340s, I might replace my three fronts and move my personally done 170s to another room.

[shane55]

Well just to voice the obvious...
I would not buy the wood veneer. Given a choice, even at the same price-point, I would get the all-black. I prefer it.

To me, it's not furniture. I want it to disappear aurally and visually.
No WAF conflicts.

shane

[bikeman]

No WAF conflicts.

Amen to that.

David

[chasw98]

I agree with the minimalist black look. I just finished helping a friend build a center channel speaker that is as big as the av123 "big foot". We were able to build it for $300.00 unfinished. He wanted that fancy rosewood finish that av123 offers on their speakers. We found out the veneer alone would cost as much as what we spent on the speaker. He went with satin black. Now this is not a production run for a factory where costs would be less, but you get the idea. Not to mention the careful handling involved for the beautiful finishes, one scratch, and its B-stock! Just my .02

Chuck