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Speaker grills on or off

S

SAFETYDAWG

Member
I am sure this subject has been hashed around here before. Nevertheless, I'd like to get some feedback on how many of us remove the speaker grills when settling in for a serious listening session.

My Focal Cobalt 826s have steel grills. They definitely seem to pick up about 10% in the high end and overall presence w/o grills. Always replace the grills when I am done. I DON'T need one of my three happy housecats mistaking a bass driver for a scratching post!
 
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I haven't really "critically listened" for a long time now, but when I did I took them off.

Nowadays I just take them off for the looks.



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For me, it all comes down to the specific speaker I am listening too, as well as the room acoustics. Things that will have an effect on the sound will be the "transparency" of the speaker grill material, speaker placement (as well as toe in, toe out, tilting, and height), whether there are a lot of hard or soft surfaces in your listening space, room dimensions, and also whether your room is acoustically treated or not. Add to that, differing components, as well as varying genres and recording qualities of each album, and there are many variables that go into what may affect a speaker to sound better with their grills off or not. With that said, I usually listen with the grills off of my main speakers, as I find them to sound a tad more open. But again, this all depends on all the variables above (especially the grill material), and it will be different in every situation. To anyone who is curious about what your speakers might sound like without the grills on, just try them without! It's all about experimentation, and you'll never know until you try! :) Just play around a bit with speaker placement to see if having the grills off work for you. But ultimately it will usually come down to the specific speaker you have hooked up, and the grill material they have.
 
The kindest thing that can be said about naked Acoustats is, they look agricultural. The truth is, when naked they're BFU!:D
 
ev13wt said:
I haven't really "critically listened" for a long time now, but when I did I took them off.

Nowadays I just take them off for the looks.



2w5q83r.jpg
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I have the 6000A's and I take the hats off when listening critically. I can definitely tell a difference. Lots of wood under the grill cloth. Too, with the x-over point at 1500hz the tweets are doing a lot more work than a comparable 3 way so that may have something to do with it.
 
ev13wt said:
I haven't really "critically listened" for a long time now, but when I did I took them off.

Nowadays I just take them off for the looks.



2w5q83r.jpg
Click to expand...

Oh man, you had to show off with those speakers.
I always loved the way they look and if they sound as good...:thmbsp:
 
gip111 said:
Oh man, you had to show off with those speakers.
I always loved the way they look and if they sound as good...:thmbsp:
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Hehe you caught me!

They sound great enough. A bit too much mids and slightly shouty at higher volumes. Nothing DSP can't handle to get them to flat. But most of the time I just listen without the computer and they do great. The tweeter is one of the smoothest I've heard.

But that is whining on a high level. They are really good speakers.
 
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If you have younger (toddler-aged) children about the place, keep the grills on, else risk (especially) poked tweeter cones. I've had four KEF T-27 cones poked (thus, ddented) by the fingers of yung'uns. They cannot resist the urge to speaker cones, and especially @ tweeters. When I switched to 104/2s, the grills stayed on for the first couple of years. As soon as they were sufficiently aged to 'tust', off came the covers.
 
Mystic said:
If you have younger (toddler-aged) children about the place, keep the grills on, else risk (especially) poked tweeter cones. I've had four KEF T-27 cones poked (thus, ddented) by the fingers of yung'uns. They cannot resist the urge to speaker cones, and especially @ tweeters...
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^This. As well as pets (as mentioned), and generally people who aren't knowledgeable enough about these things either.
 
Grills are left on most of the time. Every once in a while when I'm in a mood..... I take them off just to look at em. They are nice to look at both on and off. Haven't noticed a major difference in the sound. I'm sure there is a difference but my ears aren't trained enough to notice it.
 
SAFETYDAWG said:
I am sure this subject has been hashed around here before. Nevertheless, I'd like to get some feedback on how many of us remove the speaker grills when settling in for a serious listening session.

My Focal Cobalt 826s have steel grills. They definitely seem to pick up about 10% in the high end and overall presence w/o grills. Always replace the grills when I am done. I DON'T need one of my three happy housecats mistaking a bass driver for a scratching post!
Click to expand...

I leave off. But covered when not in use. Polypropylene woofers are more durable, but paper is easy to puncture.

As far as sound goes, just porous fabric covers barely if at all interfere with sound. But, metal or wooden "waffle" style grills with a ton of material, do indeed obscure the sound. Subs especially. 1st, the material of the grill when in large grids, means the sound waves bounce back to the speaker while a handful escape, which isn't good. It can also alter the tone slightly too as it's acting like a metal or thin wood wall.

In practice with subs or decent woofers, playing songs I was familiar with, there was a clear difference w/o the cover. The more restrictive the cover, the worse it gets.
 
I usually take them off while listening and put them back after I'm done.
I have definitely heard differences especially with older speakers that used sack cloth or thickly woven type material for grills. May as well use sweatshirt materials to cover up the tweeters while you're at it.
Newer speakers seem to have much finer material but I still like to look while listening.
 
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