Those look great, Mike!
Never having used it, I'm curious if Rubio is all that the web seems to suggest. Would appreciate your take on it.
I’m a big fan of Rubio when it fits the sheen you want. If you want a matte finish, then it is true to its monocoat name. One coat is all you need and it couldn’t be easier to apply. You can get it to a satin sheen like these by applying a second coat the next day then a coat of their maintenance oil a couple days later. If you add a ceramic coating about a week after that you can get up to semi-gloss but that’s it. If you want a higher sheen, Rubio is not the product to use.
Two other pluses are it’s durability and ease of repair. It was designed for hardwood floors so is very durable and it can be spot repaired if necessary. Oh, and, you don’t need a respirator to apply in.
It’s expensive up front but a little really does go a long way. For example, 18ml of the wax/oil mix and 3ml of activator was plenty for one coat on both speakers and I still had some left over. One caution, if you want a natural wood look, you need the “Pure” version, not the “Natural” like you would think. The Natural actually has a slight white/yellow tint to it.
Mike. Great craftsmanship and superb finish.
See you have added a Mylex to the Sonicaps for the woofer.
Could you share your thoughts on the sound and possibly the value 
because I have build my Encores now and are about to assemble it all. Should I add ??
I definitely think it’s worth it. Not necessarily from a bang for the buck standpoint but from a SQ standpoint. I think it makes the overall tonal balance smoother. There’s only two of them so it’s not expensive. I’d go for it.
These were a little more challenging than the last pair. For that pair the board I had was wide enough to get the top and side panels with one piece. With this pair, there were two boards. One was wide enough for the front and back panels be be one piece but the other was narrower so the panels were made up of two or three pieces. This meant gluing up wider panels after milling the pieces to 1/4” but that allowed me to play with the patterns. On some panels, book matching worked well while others required mixing and matching to get interesting patterns. With ambrosia maple, the patterns don’t always go all the way through the board which also made mixing and matching necessary.
