Grille or Baffle?
When I first pulled the grille off to admire the drivers, I noticed a funny thing. The tweeter is set into its own plate. That’s not strange at all, but what was strange is that the tweeter's plate, though inset to fit flush at its edges of the cabinet, did not itself present a flush surface to the tweeter diaphragm, raising concerns of diffraction. Why would someone take the time and effort to mount the plate flush with the surface, but not provide a smooth surface on the plate itself? I shrugged, put the grille back on, and went on to listening without worrying, taking note, though, that if the non-flush surface were causing diffraction artifacts, that would screw with imaging and frequency response, the speaker didn’t seem to be suffering a whole lot. Later on, when I got around to taking snapshots, I noticed a very curious thing. The grille itself forms a surface which directly meets the raised edge of the tweeter plate, the surface at the same angle, becoming an extension of that plate just as if it were mounted flush with the entire baffle, with the added benefit of then gradually rolling back to flat, like a gentle horn, so that less treble energy actually hits the corners of the cabinets, limiting diffraction again! Ingenious! I’ve seen it before, specifically in my gone but not forgotten Infinity Renaissance 90s, but occasions have been rare.
