[Walter_Sobchak]

This question is being asked with no regard to aesthetics. Do speaker grilles have any effect on the sound coming out... Should they be left on or off?

 

[Paul Scarpelli]

There's no simple answer, but here's a simple answer: All speaker grills are different. Some are designed mostly for looks, while some are designed to be acoustically transparent. The best sounding grills are down no more than a dB or so at 15 kHz. Another issue is diffraction caused by bulky grill frames, and this is potentially a bigger problem.


To complicate things, some manufacturers voice their speakers for flatter response with the grills on, and if you remove them, treble frequencies could peel paint.


By the way, "The Big Lebowski" is possibly my favorite movie.


"STFU, Donny!!"

"Nice marmot..."

"Careful, man, there's a beverage here..."

"I'm not Lebowski...I'm the Dude, man..."

"Donny, you're entirely out of your element here..."

 

[russwong]

I left the speaker grills off my B&W 604 speakers, because the speaker just looks cooler with it off, but looking at the grill it would look like all that hard plastic would interfere, so I leave it off.


Russ

 

[GreatBop]

easy answer: sometimes it just makes the sound become much more clearer. But some manufactures mean to have the speaker grilles ON and set their speakers up that way.

 

[Vic C]

All of the above answers are correct. As some are transparent and some well, like on inwalls cant possibly be right.


I have a set of CerwinVega RE-20's I bought about 7 years ago. I am contemplating getting some towers and selling the Vegas but I really like the way the perform. I tossed the grills after the cat snagged one and it gave me the excuse to leave them off. For some reason the cat could care less bnow that the grills are gone. maby he thinks they look cooler with them off too

 

[Greg_R]

Paradigm's Studio line is an example of a speaker designed for grills on. The frame for the cloth extends the baffle...