Not to put you at odds with your SO, but why is real wood so important?? Personally, I find the use of a laminate veneer in an affordable speaker to be preferable if this allow the mfg. to then use higher quality drivers and cross-over components (or, put simply, if it sounds better).
For example, I find the laminates used on Paradigm Studio series speakers to be of very high quality - and they're likely to be more durable than the the paper thin "real veneer" that is found on most affordable wood covered speakers.
