Speaker Grilles On Or Off: Which Way Sounds Better?

How do you listen to your speakers?

  • Grilles On

    Votes: 18 40.9%
  • Grilles Off

    Votes: 21 47.7%
  • What are grilles?

    Votes: 5 11.4%

  • Total voters
    44
3db

3db

Audioholic Slumlord
I voted grills on because I would only lose them if I separated them from their speakers. I do listen to them occasionally without grills . There is no difference in sound that I can detect.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Hey Guys, I cleaned up a bunch of off topic discussion. If you want to debate how ports work, that is fine, but start a new thread for it, so we can keep this thread's discussion to the subject at hand, which is speaker grilles.

Don't take offense if your posts have been deleted!
 
D

Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
Hey Guys, I cleaned up a bunch of off topic discussion. If you want to debate how ports work, that is fine, but start a new thread for it, so we can keep this thread's discussion to the subject at hand, which is speaker grilles.
Sounds fair to me Shady I'm guilty as charged and promise I'll clean up my act! Lol No more port talk from me! :D
 
GrimSurfer

GrimSurfer

Senior Audioholic
Hey Guys, I cleaned up a bunch of off topic discussion. If you want to debate how ports work, that is fine, but start a new thread for it, so we can keep this thread's discussion to the subject at hand, which is speaker grilles.

Don't take offense if your posts have been deleted!
No offence taken. Gets things back on topic!
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
Hey Guys, I cleaned up a bunch of off topic discussion. If you want to debate how ports work, that is fine, but start a new thread for it, so we can keep this thread's discussion to the subject at hand, which is speaker grilles.
That sounds fair to me too.
 
S

snakeeyes

Audioholic Ninja
Don't know why, but there's something I find enjoyable about seeing the woofers dance when it's cranking.
I voted grills off too but I’m a bit lazy to pull off subwoofer grills most of the time. :)
 
one more time

one more time

Junior Audioholic
If one can't tell the difference by listening for themselves and have to ask the audience for the answer, what does that tell you?
 
D

Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
My white gloss Canton Vento’s have silver aluminum drivers. You can’t hide those babies. :)
Oh yeah?! Well well my black drivers on black svs towers looks just just.... Ok... I'm just gonna stop now :D
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
From the acoustic perspective... what is audible in terms of diffraction effects, spl changes, etc. Seamed like many of the examples were pretty good. Thanks!
 
D

Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
From the acoustic perspective... what is audible in terms of diffraction effects, spl changes, etc. Seamed like many of the examples were pretty good. Thanks!
It Kind off reminds me when you were worried about diffraction effects due to the placement of your TV relative to your speakers. Didn't you post that at one time? There was some good info in that thread
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
From the acoustic perspective... what is audible in terms of diffraction effects, spl changes, etc. Seamed like many of the examples were pretty good. Thanks!
There is some evidence that diffraction can be audible, but no one really knows how audible these quantities are. The paper cited in the article that demonstrated the audibility of diffraction effects can be read in full here. In a normal listening environment, diffraction caused by grille frames isn't likely to be a serious detractor from the sound quality- unless that grille was just terribly designed. As was discussed in the article, poor speaker placement is going to cause much worse diffraction than most grilles.
 
Kvn_Walker

Kvn_Walker

Audioholic Field Marshall
I voted grills off too but I’m a bit lazy to pull off subwoofer grills most of the time. :)
I will be honest- with the T&As' slat mounted metal grilles, it's such a hassle that I don't remove them as often as I would had they been traditional cloth/frame/pegs. Removal requires a hook which I always have to look for since I'm absent minded, and I get scared that I will scratch the cabinets when I put them back on.

I am thankful for the added protection but I do wish they were a bit more user friendly.
 
D

Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
There is some evidence that diffraction can be audible, but no one really knows how audible these quantities are. The paper cited in the article that demonstrated the audibility of diffraction effects can be read in full here. In a normal listening environment, diffraction caused by grille frames isn't likely to be a serious detractor from the sound quality- unless that grille was just terribly designed. As was discussed in the article, poor speaker placement is going to cause much worse diffraction than most grilles.
Still knowing how OCD we can be about the sound every little bit helps even if it's only for our peace of mind.

I'm wondering with items like acoustically transparent screens just how transperent are they? Or could there be subtle issues of diffraction as well?

Good thought to chew on maybe dig into myself
 
3db

3db

Audioholic Slumlord
There is some evidence that diffraction can be audible, but no one really knows how audible these quantities are. The paper cited in the article that demonstrated the audibility of diffraction effects can be read in full here. In a normal listening environment, diffraction caused by grille frames isn't likely to be a serious detractor from the sound quality- unless that grille was just terribly designed. As was discussed in the article, poor speaker placement is going to cause much worse diffraction than most grilles.
I believe there would be some diffraction as well but well below audible limits.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
It Kind off reminds me when you were worried about diffraction effects due to the placement of your TV relative to your speakers. Didn't you post that at one time? There was some good info in that thread
I’ll read the paper he posted in a bit... just curious though about learning where the threshold is since I’m kinda getting into speaker design and building.
The paper cited in the article that demonstrated the audibility of diffraction effects can be read in full here.
Thanks, Shady!
 

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