w00d

[bjfish11 5,000+ posts]

So you buy the MDF and then the veneer to cover it and with that price, you could have just bought some Baltic Birch and had a lighter enclosure that was easier to build.
Birch has it's place and MDF has it's place. Some people enjoy the end grain on Birch and some people do not. Birch is much easier to work with and is much less messy than MDF. Also, if you're worried about end grain and you're serious about your builds, there are more than a few ways around that and some of them are not very difficult or expensive.

If I'm building anything for a home, I'm going to use birch. If I'm building for a car, I'll use MDF.

Sure, Birch works great (if you use the correct stuff) but there are plenty other alternatives to using Birch in HT. What if I want my enclosure stained to match the trim of my house. I would want to go with the same material to give everything a uniform look. So Ill go with MDF Oak.

Im dying to try an HT build, just lack the monies for all the equipment.

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

I've never used MDF oak and this thread is the first time I have ever heard of it. I'll have to look into it around here and see if the price is right.

 

[tEh koRnDog 5,000+ posts]

ive never seen MDF oak in the stores. Ill have to go check it out

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

You'll probably have to go to a real lumber yard or cabinetry supply to get veneered MDF. You still have to deal with the end grain on it, too, or really lack of grain.

I personally hate MDF. 13-ply works fine for me and is worth paying 2x the price. I've ended up in the ER thanks to the chems in MDF. I've spent 3 days trying to vac up the superfine dust that was made from only one box build.

Yes there is a difference between Baltic birch and regular birch, but that difference isn't nearly as significant as the difference between 5-ply with finish veneers and 13-ply. The tangible difference is in the voids left in the plys. The thicker plys have larger voids and will make an enclosure prone to resonate. The large number of thin plays have fewer and smaller voids making for a deader enclosure. The lack of panel resonance is the reason that MDF and HDF are the best material acoustically. Strength-wise fiberboard sucks.