For veneering, you first need a sheet of veneer. I used paperbacked veneer, because it is possible to bend this around tighter corners than conventional veneer. The brand I got is Decoflex, and the type is "American walnut". Luckily, it is springtime, so I could use the gardentable to cut the veneer on (yes yes I have used a cuttingboard), which about the only table around that is large enough to hold the sheet of veneer (which comes in a standard size of 125x250cm)

This piece is removed from the large sheet. It is important to notice the grain when applying the veneer to the speaker. Simply because it is nice when left and right speaker are somewhat equal.

This is the speaker with the contactglue applied. What a pain! Somebody could have warned me in advance that contactglue has the tendency to dry in 3 seconds. This makes spreading the stuff out with a brush virtually impossible. Note to self: start looking out for sprayable contactglue!

Now that the glue has dried for about 30 minutes, it is time to make the preperations for applying the veneer on the speaker. One of the properties of contactglue is that it sticks on contact, hence the name. But this sheet of veneer is a. fragile and b. difficult to handle. All the ingredients are in place for errors. So I masked a large part of the glue with plastic foil, which I will remove when needed.

Yes, it worked! Indeed no pics of the actual applying of the veneer, because at the time, I had something better to do! The edges are easily removed with a SHARP knife (insert new blade in a stanley knife and change it every 50cm!) or a router, and some light sanding

All the veneer applied, and the edges removed. I have also lightly sanded the veneer (using the recommended 220 grit paper). Click on the image for a close-up of a corner. You can hardly see the thin paperbacking of the veneer. And that will completely disappear after painting.

Caution, WET!! First coat of paint is applied, two to follow. This is the first and also the last time I'm painting something myself! My mtm speakers were spraypainted and that looks much, much better! So when I have a new set of speakers, I will also have someone spraypaint those. My painting skills simply suck.

In the end, it didn't turn out too shabby. But still: my next speakers will be (spray) painted by someone else.

We're getting there. I've mounted the speakerunits and installed the spikes. On the backside, the 4 speakerposts are in place (so I can easily connect the test crossover, nifty ey?).

Since the speakers are to be placed on a desk, they need some form of protection. And that's why I made a grille for them. And on this image, you can see the mounting holes for the grilles in place. Since there was too little room next to the tweeter, that mounting hole is placed below the tweeter.

This is the backside of the grille. It is a simple mdf frame, which is a little wider where the nippies are to be mounted. The front of the grille is rounded over with a 9.5mm roundover bit, for my viewing pleasure. For installing the cloth, I used the instructions I found on Audiofriends, which in short come down to this: Cut the cloth to size. Apply contact glue (yuk) to both the frame and the edges of the cloth. Wait, and press the cloth onto the frame, stretching it out a bit. Be carefull in the corners, because there is double the amount of cloth there.

And an image of the speaker with the grille in place. Looks almost real :-)