Does a cloth grille affect the sound of a sub?

[markw]

I wonder how this affects bottom firing subs where no direct radiation into the room transpires?

 

[markw]

No, I haven't contacted Velodyne. My last highly technical encounter with their customer service folks was not especially satisfying.

I've had good dealing swith Velodyne sustomer service and when I had them stumped, they put me in contact with their favorite repair facility, Speaker Exchange in Tampa, Fl.

Their phone number is 1 800 849-6972

You might want to give them a call. I'd be interested in their take on this.

 

[j_garcia]

I'd actually ask Velodyne first

 

[Gordonj]

I wonder how this affects bottom firing subs where no direct radiation into the room transpires?

One of the good things about down fire subs (and makes them some what cheaper) is no grille. Also, both front and down fire subs are direct radiating, just one fires forward and one fires down.

Gordon

 

[markw]

One of the good things about down fire subs (and makes them some what cheaper) is no grille. Also, both front and down fire subs are direct radiating, just one fires forward and one fires down.

Gordon

Which is why I doubt it has an audiable effect unless it audiably vibrates. The frequency range is too low.

 

[Gordonj]

Which is why I doubt it has an audiable effect unless it audiably vibrates. The frequency range is too low.

Oh agreed 100%. And to further that, i would be worried about putting a mesh cage like grille on my sub due to rattles. They will rattle with metal grills unless they are dense enough and mounted properly.

If you really wanted to see the results of with and without grilles a FFT measruement of the before and after then overlaid would show if what you are hearing is truly real.....

Gordon

 

[BM1]

I did some SPL measurements a couple of days ago, and the results are not conclusive; that's why I was looking for technical theory. With 25Hz warble tones played back at 82db measured at my listening seat, there was approximately a 1 db difference in sound level, as measured at my listening seat, in favor of no grille. At 20Hz the difference was nearly 2db. At 31.5 Hz I must have a room mode, because fine positioning of the microphone changed the measurements enough I couldn't tell what I was measuring. At 40Hz the difference was about 0.7db.

When I replayed some of the tracks I thought "sounded" better, it was mostly the feeling of a bass "shock wave" that made me think there was a difference. I'm not sure if I could tell blind-folded, but I'd probably bet against myself unless the bet was under $10.

I haven't run bass distortion tests yet.

Overall, the results still seem to support leaving the grille off. The measurements are repeatable and consistent, but, who knows? I've noticed at these frequencies another person in the room, or my position in the room, affects the measurements.

It sounds like you're getting a negligible difference in the audible frequency ranges. 2 dB at 20 Hz likely won't sound any different since that's about the bottom limit of what the human ear can interpret as audible sound, but could be felt possibly to your point of more perceived impact without the grille.

 

[slipperybidness]

18" driver vs flimsy piece of cloth designed to cover said driver? I have a hard time believing it could make an audible difference. But, I could understand the OCD aspect