V

viseral audio

Audioholic
Just curios how many leave all there grill covers on, I used to mostly then noticed especially on my subs that without covers sounds like upper bass has sharper kick, more impact.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Somehow my mind went to BBQ grill covers, not subwoofers since this is near the end of the grilling season here in the northeast USA.
 
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Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
Just curios how many leave all there grill covers on, I used to mostly then noticed especially on my subs that without covers sounds like upper bass has sharper kick, more impact.
If you have young children or cats, you definitely have to leave covering grills on speaker drivers.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Just curios how many leave all there grill covers on, I used to mostly then noticed especially on my subs that without covers sounds like upper bass has sharper kick, more impact.
I would be curious to see if you could tell in a double blind test. The “sharpness” comes from much higher in the FR.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
This has been discussed before. While some differences can be seen in FR graphs they are mostly minor and likely most would be inaudible.
 
V

viseral audio

Audioholic
I agree with you, yet my brain says it feels different, sub is in near field but still I know it shouldn't matter
 
Mikado463

Mikado463

Audioholic Spartan
Somehow my mind went to BBQ grills, not subwoofers, since this is near the end of the grilling season here in the north east of the USA.
Nonsense !!! I grill out year round !! :cool: Granted my Weber Genesis can't hit the high temps for good searing in the dead of winter
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I agree with you, yet my brain says it feels different, sub is in near field but still I know it shouldn't matter
It's just got you staring at the drivers....and now you're in their power.....
hypno.jpg


I generally don't like the looks of drivers so I leave grilles in place....altho I do have one nekkid sub right now....one of my diy subs where I need to re-glue the magnets in the grille frame....but with the subs definitely not an audible thing, nor have I noticed any particular difference grille on/off with higher frequencies with the other speakers....
 
Trell

Trell

Audioholic Spartan
This has been discussed before. While some differences can be seen in FR graphs they are mostly minor and likely most would be inaudible.
I do leave the grills off my Canton Vento front speakers as they do sound better without, and that was readily audible. But then the Canton grills are MDF plates with holes cut out for the drivers and an acoustically transparent cloth over that. I guess speaker grills are not created equally.

When my daughter was a child I did leave the grill on to protect the drivers.
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
It brings up a minor question, are the published specs of a speaker with the grille on or off? I will presume most would give specs with them on and that is how they're intended to be listened to in general. If you prefer the sound with them off, there's no reason not to leave them that way except that they will eventually get dusty.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
I agree with you, yet my brain says it feels different, sub is in near field but still I know it shouldn't matter
What is your sub? Grills do make small changes to measurements generally of questionable audibility.

However, I am not aware of data on subs, where it probably is significant under some circumstances. This would be especially true if it was a sealed sub, or a ported sub with the grill also covering the ports. All cloth woven grills have a definite resistance to air flow, which you can confirm by blowing though it.

In a sealed sub cone excursions are greater, as all the air movement is produced by cone excursion. In a ported sub at resonance the pressure in the box is high and cone excursion is dramatically reduced and the majority of the air displacement is from the ports, although over relatively narrow frequency band.

In my case I use transmission lines and the pressure at the speaker is high, and even with prodigious bass output cane excursion is not great as the pressure behind the speaker is high and the cone excursion controlled. This occurs over a significantly wider bandwidth than a ported reflex box. In addition the port is much larger allowing for non resistive air flow.

So I think it more likely than not, that in sealed subs, especially, the grill fabric could, and likely does cause a resistance to air flow with audible results, but I have never measured it, as I have never built a sealed sub, and never covered a sub port with fabric.

Having said that, I feel the risk of damage to speakers with grills off is high. Therefore I strongly encourage the use of grills.
 
Sigberg Audio

Sigberg Audio

Audioholic
We've measured this, there's little to no difference below 1khz on a typical grille. You certainly would not see a difference on a subwoofer.
 
V

viseral audio

Audioholic
My sub in question is a jtr 218 captivator pro, it would seem to me that a screen reduces air flow by probably 50 % and could have effect? thanks for everybody's input
 
Sigberg Audio

Sigberg Audio

Audioholic
My sub in question is a jtr 218 captivator pro, it would seem to me that a screen reduces air flow by probably 50 % and could have effect? thanks for everybody's input
Frequencies this low goes through just about everything including the cabinet. You could turn the sub around so the driver faced the wall instead of you, and it would work just as well.
 
Kvn_Walker

Kvn_Walker

Audioholic Field Marshall
Any audible difference, real or perceived, is meager compared to the sound degradation caused by poked in tweeters and toy cars driven into ports.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
My sub in question is a jtr 218 captivator pro, it would seem to me that a screen reduces air flow by probably 50 % and could have effect? thanks for everybody's input
Even if your guess at 50% reduced airflow is correct, as said it won’t matter. Especially for bass waves that go through almost anything. Svs even used stamped steel perforated grilles to no known effect. Sound waves and airflow are apples and oranges. The only place that it’s applicable here would be the air velocity from a subwoofers port.
It’s true that some speakers are voiced with grilles on or off, that’s related to the tweeter in which it’s higher frequencies can be affected by fabric.
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
Low bass frequency sine waves are longer than your room, so a piece of cloth isn't going to bother it.
 
F

fmw

Audioholic Ninja
It's just got you staring at the drivers....and now you're in their power.....
View attachment 57955

I generally don't like the looks of drivers so I leave grilles in place....altho I do have one nekkid sub right now....one of my diy subs where I need to re-glue the magnets in the grille frame....but with the subs definitely not an audible thing, nor have I noticed any particular difference grille on/off with higher frequencies with the other speakers....
Thanks for the reminder. I have a homebrew sub that is naked. I should put together a grill for it.
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
Any audible difference, real or perceived, is meager compared to the sound degradation caused by poked in tweeters and toy cars driven into ports.
Sounds like you have little ones issues. :D
 
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