I'll chime in here.
I've had my Mini's since June of last year. I told Bob I wanted the Walnut finish from the pics on his site. When I got the speakers, I thought they were black they were so dark. I told Bob, more than anything wondering where the finish I saw in the pics went to.
He admitted he had had a problem, first with the brightness of the pics and mostly with the staining process. He offered to do something about it, but the more I LISTENED to the Mini's, the less important the finish seemed. They are actually very nice looking, you just have to shine a little light on them to see the grain. No problems with the quality of the workmanship.
In fact, I liked them enough that I ordered a pair of TP 3.0's, which according to Bob are almost there.
Gene