The material we used was actual aluminum sheets that had been finished with a scratch pattern on one side.
I am familiar with all the backed metal laminates and there are many options to choose from. But there were issues I was concerned about. First, with a laminate, you will always see the backing at the seams. This may not be a big deal, but I wanted to avoid it.
Second, I have little experience with laminates and was concerned about bending the material at the point where the tapers began. I didn't want it to crack. So I thought it would just be safer to use raw metal.
Finally, the laminates I looked at were more expensive than the raw metal. Stainless steel, for example, really looked nice but was three times as expensive.
For a number of years I have had samples of some fantistic metal laminates in all kinds of colors and textures. I have always wanted to try them out and probably will one of these days. I have always thought a nice copper would look nice with the W18 driver.
As for how much extra it would cost to do this in the future, it is hard to say. It took a great deal of time on these speakers because we had to learn how to work with it. The next job will obviously go faster. Who knows, with the laminated material, it is certainly concieveable that we could finish a pair in less time than it would take to veneer them. In that case, you are only talking about the additional cost of the laminate.
- Jim
