Speaker covers: On or Off?

[Johnny Canuck]

Bit of a silly question, but I read on another thread where some guy was saying the grills made a difference in sound. I don't really hear it. Does anyone else? Personally, I like the look of all my woofers and tweeters and have all my grills off.

 

[Audioholics]

Depends on the grills. Krell, for example, released speakers last year that had grills that dramatically affected the sound. The typical thin grill cloth generally doesn't affect it at all.

 

[Johnny Canuck]

Thanks Clint....my Polks have the thin nylon type covers..guess trying it is the only way to know for sure.

 

[warnerwh]

There's more problem than just the grill cloths affecting the sound. The frame that the cloth is on can and usually does cause diffraction problems which can affect frequency response and imaging. Try your speakers both ways and see what sounds best to you is the thing to do. Personally my speakers sit without grills on most of the time. Most peoples high end audio speakers the grills are kept off most of the time. If you have a dog, cat or kids and possibly a picky wife then you may have assess your situation. Most people do hear an improvement with most speakers having the grills off.

 

[warpdrive]

I can hear a difference with my grills on.

Some speaker makers optiimize their designs with the grills on, some are designed to sound best with grills off.

 

[Dumar]

Some speaker makers optiimize their designs with the grills on

Like my Paradigm's, which have specially shaped grills that actually form an integral part of the cabinet.

 

[The Nerdly Guy]

Some speakers are made to only sound right with the grille on, but to quote Ken Kreisel, "There's no grille like no grille!" So if it doesn't need to be on, take it off!

 

[claudermilk]

It really depends on the speaker. Like Dumar, I have Paradigms; they specifically say in the manual (a manual for a speaker?) to leave them on as the speakers & grilles are designed for them to remain on. I cannot hear any difference with them on or off, so I'm leaving them on--the speaker looks cleaner. But I have a Yamaha TS-10 in my office at work, and those little speakers sound much clearer with the grilles off, so they are living in the desk drawer.

 

[supervij]

Personally, I can't hear much difference with my Athenas. However, I think the Audition series look really nice -- cleaner, and classier -- with the grilles on. I find when I take them off, the tweeters and woofers are very distracting visually. Just can't help but look at them every once in a while, even when playing a movie. For that reason, I've decided to leave 'em on. Just my two cents.

cheers,
supervij

 

[markw]

If you have animals or kids, the choice should be obvious.

...or it probably will be soon enough.