I asked Al how much for a set of cabinets for my ra8s in the beautiful veneer that is on the HT8s he let me use.
The pictures don't really do the work justice.
He also mirrored the veneer on the fronts, it took me a while notice it.
Anyways he said that veneer is 1k a sheet, and it takes two sheets.
I personally like the rubberized truck bed liner finish.
Easy to fix and they blend in instead of sticking out being flashy and messing up your a/v...
man, these ra8 topics always go to 3pages...
Bill.
The Figured Lacewood is $585.00 sheet not the 1k as you noted
But does look good I think so.
Al should be back from his vacation soon, I believe he has some opinions 
Back into the full swing of things. After driving 5200k or 3232 miles.
That sounds sweet, i have some questions for Al as well.
My friend offered some help if i wanted to paint it. he has a HVLP gun and a air compressor. he said he could help setup a makeshift booth outside under his deck. so that's an option right now. i don't mind spending couple weeks painting and sanding.
The painting of the MDF is not at all were the time is at all.
The finished look of the paint is all in the pre work.
The smoother the finish the more detail work you put into the pre work.
Sand ,fill, seal, sand , Fill ,seal ovr and over till you have the smooth flat cabinet.
Then spray a dark tint sealer coat on and look for more imperfections.
Repeat till you have the cabinet filled and ready.
Spray a few coats, find out you have more filling to to
Fill sand feather in to the paint.
Spray again.
Repeat.
Then if you get dust or dirt into the finish you repeat the step over.
But for the DIY the finish you put on the speakers is all up to each of you
-how much time you have
-what you want them to look like when finished
-cost you can afford for finish,this applies to paint or veneer.
You can take a pair of cabinets to a finish shop drop them off and just pay the final bill for spraying the MDF any colour and some companies will do this for a good price others what top dollar as this is the way of telling you they do not want it.
Other spray companies can be high due to the total finish that they will give you.
1-2 coats and a top coat is less money that 8-12 coats cutting and blocking between coats and then spraying and sanding and blocking a highgloss finish.
-do the speakers have to match other areas.
We match speakers to wall units ect with a customer suppied door or wall unit piece for a sample to match to.
This all adds a cost to the finished speakers we do but gives the customer the look that they want.
The love of the DIY you put your time and money as you want to into the the speakers
Now we have not even talked about veneers.
As Bill noted above yes our HT8 demo pair (which will be at RMAF and sold at RMAF for a good deal) are finished in a exotic figured Lacewood. These sheets cost $585.00 for a 4X8 sheet.Not from GLveneer as we have a custom supplier in the lower states that makes matched sheets of what we find our customers want.
This site GLveneer shows a good gallery plus a price list of what exotics cost per sheet and can give you a good idea of what is available.
http://www.glveneer.com/gallery.htmlNow GL is by far the best,only or cheapest to get veneer but does have a very good gallery and price list.
Tapeease is a very good spot for sheet veneer but does not have a gallery to show species colours ect.
http://www.tapeease.com/venershts.htmNow Ebay.
Yes Ebay a good place for veneer also.Well at times not all the time.
You must look at the sellers history,where they ship to,how much shipping is.
And the big one what size the sheets of veneer is.
You can get some very good deals for some Maple,Cherry ect for say $25.00 for 100sqft but these sizes are of real wood veneer not backed with a paper at all.
Real wood veneer can be hard to apply and it also can be easy.This all depends on the process you use to apply the veneer.(another thread down the road)
Also if you purchase solid wood veneer un backed make sure you have a lot of over hang on each side.
This is to make sure if the veneer gets damaged in shipping or while you handle it
you have a little room for error.
Lets say you want veneer for the HT3 cabinet is 7" wide 40" tall 11" deep.
You want to look for veneer to have a full wrap veneer or sqaure edged cabinet.
Full wrap can only be done with paper backed veneer.
A sqaure edged cabinet or solid wood corner cabinets can use the flat real wood veneer.
Pros and cons paper is the easiest to use, real wood can break ,chip ect.But can be done we do it all the time.
Full wrap Paper Backed veneer you will need a single sheet of veneer.
-2 pieces cut to 42" across the sheet leaving you a 12" strip X 48"
-4 pieces cut 9" X 12"
These pieces will get you your 2 full wraps plus the top and bottom pieces.
Real wood veneer
-4 pieces (sides) 14" width x 44" long you can go shorter or longer but you must be careful not to break the veneer if shorter or narrower.
-4 pieces (front and backs) 10" width X 44" long
-4 pieces (top and bottoms) 10" width X 14"
This gives you a idea of what the big differences are in using paper backed and real wood just in material lists.And then add getting a species that you like in real wood wood is more ecomomical as it is not backed on paper.But this is also more labour as well as more of a risk for damaged sheets than paper backed.
Looks like my plans for the RA8 will be put on hold for a little while. i just got into a car accident this morning and pretty much totalled my car. I have to use the money i saved up for the speakers to get into another car. really sucks. especially since i was going to sell the car this weekend. I love it when life likes to throw wrenches into your plans. oh well still wont stop me from building these speakers. I'll probably build the cabinets first then get the kit.
All the best in your car accident.
The RA8 kits will always be here.
Long as you are ok that is all that counts.
