Of course you can't tell that by looking at the outside anymore more than you can look at a Wilson speaker from the outside and tell it was made from some alphabet soup of different composite materials. I never said the finish on Focal speakers isn't top notch because that wasn't the point. Many of the top brands of audio speakers that compete in the stratosphere of pricing don't use MDF. Alon Wolf is on record as saying it's terrible sounding even compared to Baltic birch plywood and you can't keep screws tight in it. Both YG and Magico are using aluminum. Wilson and Rockport are using non-wood based materials.
Look, Mike asked why Focal wasn't getting the attention he felt they deserved in the U.S. marketplace and I offered up the MDF enclosures as one possible reason. I'm not trying to proclaim that MDF enclosures can't sound just dandy. If you are going to spend at least $50K on a pair of speakers, some audiophiles might question why they should be buying a pair of speakers that are made from common garden variety MDF (which the majority of speakers in the marketplace are made of) and not be buying something 'special' from one of the herd brands that is made from aluminum, composite materials, or resin.
Mike brought up the tweeter and he may have a point there as well. There are people on other forums who claim they can hear a Focal tweeter ring like they can hear their telephone ring. One guy who doesn't own Wilson speakers said that all Wilson owners should demand that Wilson upgrade their speakers with the new soft dome tweeter they are now using because of how badly the Focal tweeter rings. Of course this pissed off lots of the Wilson owners on the forum who have very expensive Wilson speakers with the Focal tweeter. The point here is that there is some amount of negative buzz in audiophile land about Focal tweeters.
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