Grills on or off?

[dloszews]

Does having the grills off the speakers serve any real purpose performance wise or is it purely aesthetics?

 

[markw]

If you have kids, cats, or parties, you wouldn't have to ask that question.

Seriously, some people swear taking them off improves the sound but some manufacturers say they were designed as part of the sound.

Me. I don't find a sugnificant difference (and I have a cat) so I leave 'em on. ...and it keeps the dust off of 'em as a bonus.

So, as with so many things in this hobby, there's no definitive right or wrong, just what you prefer.

 

[gmichael]

My speakers sound better with them off, but with a 1 year old in the house who likes to poke at things, they stay on.

 

[dkane360]

It depends, do you have sweet looking speakers? lol

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I don't think it matters either.

Of course, with 2 little girls, I have no choice.

 

[caper26]

My grills go on during the week when there are less kids around:

 

[gmichael]

My grills go on during the week when there are less kids around:

Nice set up.

I think you may have worded that backwards?

 

[supervij]

I keep the grills on all the time. I find that the speakers are too visually distracting when the grills are off, pulling focus away from the movie. Of course, when I listen to music, my eyes are usually closed, so that's moot.

cheers,
supervij

 

[KEW]

I notice a difference in sound - only in the higher frequencies.
Some manufacturers tune their speakers for use with grills.
You have to decide if it is better for you.
One man's "presence" is another man's "bright".

 

[caper26]

Nice set up.

I think you may have worded that backwards?

Thanks for the compliments...it is my 'first real setup' that I have been working on since the spring.

My wife has an in-home daycare so there are more kids around during the week than on weekends. Also, during weekends I am home to personally whack any curious fingers with a ruler j/k...that's why I chose these speakers: so I could wall mount them cleanly and keep the kids from driving into them with their little foot-powered cars. I wrap my sub in a blanket during the week too! lol I keep a coffee table under the TV which sorta deters them from that center speaker which is in reach. I must say though, they haven't gone near it since I put it up months ago.

 

[Pyrrho]

Usually, there is very little, if any, difference in sound quality whether the grills are on or off. Manufacturers do try, after all, to use acoustically transparent materials for grills. In fact, I have never seen any double blind tests showing that anyone could hear the difference with any speaker, but I have never seen anyone bother to test this.

With that in mind, unless you and everyone else who visits your house is invariably careful, you should leave the grills on because they protect the speakers. If you ever decide to sell them, it will significantly affect their market value if the woofer centers or tweeters are pushed in or dented. Even if it makes no audible difference in the sound (which, if that doesn't, you are going to have a hard time convincing me that you really hear a difference between having acoustically transparent grill cloth between the speakers and you or not).

 

[3db]

ditto to what markw says

 

[itschris]

Here's another thought... do the grill even protect your speakers. DefTech just basically have a sock over the whole speaker. There's no framework that seperates the grill from the speaker. I've thought about just pulling them off. The socks get dusty, especially on the edges and they're hard to clean withotu stretching or snagging.

 

[Pyrrho]

Here's another thought... do the grill even protect your speakers. DefTech just basically have a sock over the whole speaker. There's no framework that seperates the grill from the speaker. I've thought about just pulling them off. The socks get dusty, especially on the edges and they're hard to clean withotu stretching or snagging.

Yes, they do protect the speakers, though they obviously do not protect them from someone determined to damage them. When you are moving your hand (or any other part of your body), as soon as you notice contact with something, you are likely to react to that. Even when it is just touching a piece of cloth. So one does tend to slightly push in the cloth at such a point (as human reaction is not perfect and instantaneous), but typically the cloth springs back and no harm is done. When one's hand accidentally comes in contact with a tweeter, that lack of instantaneous reaction may result in a dented tweeter, particularly if it is a thin metal type instead of a soft dome that might spring back.

Even without reacting to touching something, it still will require slightly greater force to push through a grill to the actual speaker, so some protection is provided with the grill cloth.

Also, that dust that is collecting on the grill cloth would be collecting on your speakers without the grill cloth. And when trying to clean actual speakers, you will increase the chance of doing damage to them. And if you decide to leave the dust on them, you may as well have left the dust on the grill cloth and not cleaned them instead.

You, of course, are free to do pretty much whatever you want with your speakers, but I would advise you to leave the grills on for their protection.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Siegfried Linkwitz believes in listening to his speakers with the grills OFF.

So I think it does make a difference.

However, I don't think I can tell the difference personally.

So if you can easily remove the grills, you can try for yourself.

If not, don't worry about it.

 

[j_garcia]

For critical listening, I take them off, but the other 90% of the time they are on. I can tell the difference in the highs, and that should be obvious since the highs are what are going to be affected most by the grilles. It sounds great with them on, and only slightly different with them off, but I can tell.

 

[highfigh]

I removed my grills once and found little bits of high frequencies stuck to the back of the cloth. That must have explained why the sound was a bit muffled but after I vacuumed the backside, it sounded better.

Sorry, I had to.

I worked with someone who wanted to prove some of us were full of crap when we said we could hear the difference, so we did a listening test. Once we explained what we heard, he agreed with us that they do make a little difference but unless the cloth was really heavy, it wasn't drastic. I do prefer the frame to stay clear of the tweeter and mid- if it doesn't make a difference, why would so many speaker manufacturers bevel or drastically round over the edges to the sides and above the tweeter to minimize diffraction?

 

[gmichael]

It depends on the speaker too. I can’t tell the difference with my Infinity’s, but I can tell with my Mini’s.

 

[Docks]

Depends on the type of speaker, who makes it and.. ultimately what you like. Witih some speakers the grills are actually used to help prevent diffraction. But some look so nice with the grills off!

 

[cvcgolf]

Be a man and take the grills off. Speakers just look better that way and that's it. Is their a speaker ad on this page right now? Are the grills off? Yes. Because that's the way a speaker is meant to be. It looks and sounds better.

My Monitor Audio speakers actually have a small metal grill to protect the tweeter as well. I took them off because the people at Monitor said they would sound better. Can I hear a difference. Maybe, maybe not. But at least I have them set up to perform at their best.

Some speakers have beautiful wood cabinets (B&W, Monitor Audio, etc.) and a cloth grill just ruins the look.