the discussion should be considered just starting imo. there is so much more to it than that. these accounts of woods in the past have no details such as finish treatments. Either type or method of application. To comment on a wood and not state how it was treated is almost meaningless. If two woods have the same finish treatment that happens to be an invasive one, no one should be surprised if only minor differences are heard such as ' a touch more bass extension'......this would lead a casual reader to assume, well see woods really aren't that different. The only way to gain knowledge about woods is to listen to them raw and play with different finish treatments.......that way one can hear the raw wood and the affect of one finish, or another finish........to make this more palpable. I saturated a limba cup with oil, essentially filling it through and through. I have also wiped on the same oil, but thin, inside and out, wait for it to dry, apply some more but after the first coat has dried, the remaining coats simply build up on the outside, effectively making a cup that is sandwiched with a light finish. meaning a thin layer on the outside of cup, raw wood inner meat and another thin layer on the inside of the cup................result, the two cups sound dramatically different. The latter method now being my preferred method for that particular oil........as you can see, this goes far beyond the anecdotal and murky reports in the past. And this is just one example. Imagine the number of types of finishes that are available and the ways they can be applied, multiply these by the types of woods and one has a permutation of many different results that truly affect sound.......poly, tung oil, varnish, shelac, etc ........this is the beginning if you guys really want to dial in a magnum. In order to reduce the task to one that is more do-able, I first listened to a dozen woods raw, took the one that was obviously most synergystic with magnums to my ears, and then started the process of further dialing in that wood by finish treatment experimentation. Did cabillas ever spend this energy on the process and report any findings? If so, they didn't spill any beans. I doubt they/he or anyone else has even begun this process. Although rhydon has found that the finish matters and has apparently spent time dialing in those aluminum cups. Other wood cup makers seem to have taken a cosmetics first approach and with crossed fingers let the chips fall where they may hope it sounds good if not who cares it's sold to someone else approach.
