The speakers are finished.  They sound great, thanks to John Krutke’s design skills. I will note that I deviated from his design, so I have no idea if they sound better or worse than his reference. It’s definitely good enough for me, so I’m not worried.

As far as the finish, I treated the maple exactly as detailed on the Wood Whisperer site:

http://thewoodwhisperer.com/episode-32-pop-goes-the-maple/

The makore was finished with the General Finishes varnish only.

I might have sanded a little more to get the shellac and die completely off the surface because I really wanted there to be a striking contrast between the maple and makore; though, some die/shellac was still in the end grain.  I also finished the veneered curly maple baffles for the subs this way.

For the makore, I sanded to 320 grit and applied the same clear General Finishes oil varnish in the video.  I built it up by first sanding with 320 between coats and then I used steel wool between coats.  I wanted a satin finish, so after about 3-4 coats of finish on the maple and makore, I glued up everything, used steel wool to dull it down,  wiped on one final layer of finish, and then wiped it off with a clean rag (t-shirt).

I’m not going to apply wax because I might touch up a few areas, requiring a re-application of the finish. As a note, the sub cabinets and electronics cabinet were originally part of a 70′s hi-fi set that I refinished.  I pulled out all of the old speakers and built in two 10″ Dayton Reference HF subs in sealed enclosures per side.

I’m powering the ZD5s with an Adcom GFA-5400 and am powering the subs with a Carver a-500x, hooked up parallel at 2 ohms per side.  The Carver doesn’t get above warm even at loud volumes, at this load, whereas the Adcom seems to always be very warm.

Finally, thanks to my girlfriend for her help during stressful glue-ups and my friend Josh for his advice and use of some of his tools.

Anyway, here are the results:

Crossover Box: