How Do You Listen-Grill Covers On Or Off
- Thread starter Steve williams
- Start date
Always on
If The Lord wanted them off, they would not have been designed or shipped. Got to be one of those audiophool querks. It's all in ones head
If The Lord wanted them off, they would not have been designed or shipped. Got to be one of those audiophool querks. It's all in ones head
Grills are for cooking!
. . . and cones are for ice cream.
Always on
If The Lord wanted them off, they would not have been designed or shipped. Got to be one of those audiophool querks. It's all in ones head
speakers with grilles have them in their acoustic design.
In the design, yes, but I don't agree that they are necessarily in the acoustic design. There are other reasons which may be favored over a slight loss in fidelity.
Consider these:
Wife Acceptance Factor - Wives come in a lot of flavors, and some are downright mean where audio equipment is concerned. A lot of them won't accept something that looks too "industrial", for example. Sometimes, it's a question of losing a few percent of the sound, or losing the sale.
Quirky Audiophile Factor - Some guys believe speakers without grills look incomplete.
Manufacturer Aggravation Factor - No manufacturer is cheerfully awaiting a call from an owner who wants a new driver because his kid, cat, maid, whatever punched a hole in the dust cover, cone, etc.
I did a bunch of testing on this not for the grill case but for testing the effect of "acoustically transparent" projection screens on speakers behind them. Here are the measurements:
The greenish graph on top is without any screen. Right below it is the black which is with Revel's own grill. The other "2K" and "4K" are projection screens with the former with larger holes and the latter, tighter (4K texture being harder to see). Naturally the attenuation starts at mid frequencies and keeps getting worse. Subjectively the difference was larger than it seems from the measurements. There was both muffling of high frequencies and dulling of resolution for the lack of a better phrase.
Angling the screen (so that the reflections would not bounce back into the front of the speaker) and increasing the distance made a big difference. Unfortunately this is not something that is easily done with speaker grill.
The greenish graph on top is without any screen. Right below it is the black which is with Revel's own grill. The other "2K" and "4K" are projection screens with the former with larger holes and the latter, tighter (4K texture being harder to see). Naturally the attenuation starts at mid frequencies and keeps getting worse. Subjectively the difference was larger than it seems from the measurements. There was both muffling of high frequencies and dulling of resolution for the lack of a better phrase.
Angling the screen (so that the reflections would not bounce back into the front of the speaker) and increasing the distance made a big difference. Unfortunately this is not something that is easily done with speaker grill.
How do you know the greater treble without the grille is what the speaker designer had in mind?
How do you know it isn't compensation for having the grille on?
How do you know it isn't compensation for having the grille on?
With some speakers, yes. Grills are an integral part of the speaker design. IME, the vast majority of speakers yields your statement untrue. I for one know for a fact it's not in my head. There is a change, it's not positive and that is why I personally listen to my main speakers with the grills off. If you look up the benefits of a properly designed baffle and then slap on a grill that many manufactures supply for a WAF or quasi protection attributes, all or most of the design parameters of the baffle are thrown out of the window creating the change in sonics.Always on
If The Lord wanted them off, they would not have been designed or shipped. Got to be one of those audiophool querks. It's all in ones head
Tom
I think I posted this somewhere else, I have to listen with grills on according to both tha Avalon owners manual and my own ears.
Because the designer is my friend and he says despite picking the best grill material they found, they recommend using it without it
.
It could be worse:I can't believe some are ready to argue over whether grills should be on or off.
Bruce B
WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member
OK, I'll bite here.
Grilles ON the woofers for protection.
NO grilles on the midranges or tweeters--they were designed to be bare.
I admit I can't hear the difference with the woofer grilles on or off.
Grilles ON the woofers for protection.
NO grilles on the midranges or tweeters--they were designed to be bare.
I admit I can't hear the difference with the woofer grilles on or off.
VA The Music, grills off. Significant difference between grills on and off on my VA's. Had a pair of Sonus Faber before, kept the grills on as I didn't perceive any difference.