I just came across this and thought it was pretty crazy.
"JVC’s wood cone speakers were 20 years in the making because forming the wood sheets into a speaker cone proved daunting – they would crack or split when stamped. The solution turned out to be sake – Japanese rice wine.
A JVC audio engineer in Japan hit upon the sake solution while enjoying dried squid at a restaurant. He asked if anything special was done to make the dried squid so chewy. It was soaked in sake, he was told. Inspired, the JVC team tried the same technique with the wood sheets. It worked – after soaking in sake, the sheets could be pressed into speaker cones without splitting. In both systems, the speaker cabinets are made of solid cherry, for an elegant look and the solid construction further enhances sound quality."
whole article:
http://www.jvc.com/press/index.jsp?item=480&pageID=3&PressKitID=7