Grills, on or off?
 

Just a curiosity, do you leave your speaker grills on or take them off?

I understand certain speakers such as Vanderstein the grills are part of the acoustic design of the speakers. However I also believe that for many companies it is simply for cosmetics or to protect the drivers from small fingers.

Do you believe your speakers sound better with the grills off, or does it not really seem to make a difference?

I keep them on. Never really listened to them with them off. Might give it a try.

Always off for me. I like to see the speakers at work.

The MC speakers look pretty cool with the grills off with the Kevlar drivers and grand piano finish even on the front of the cabinet. However I think they look a tad "classier" with the grills on. Not sure I hear a difference on or off.

Randy.......This is where the Search Tool comes in handy.

http://www.audioaficionado.org/wilso...rills-off.html

Grills off. Some have suggested that speakers sound better this way but I have never tested it. When I set up my current speakers the Grills were not put on (not even taken out of the box) and I just did not bother. Have been considering putting them on because a client brought some small children over the other day and they were intrigued with the speakers.

Who would have thunk a thread about this six years ago :D...

When a speaker is designed and sold with a removable grille, the designer would have to know that grills "on" or "off" would be an option for the purchaser. If they design the speaker with a grill, it would seem they expect it to be "on" and that it would be acoustically transparent, or else the frequency response of the speaker would be affected, especially for the upper midrange and tweeters. Of course, if the grilles are acoustically transparent, and modern grills are usually very fine, thin material, the question of "on" or "off" becomes one of esthetics. The old days of heavy tweed cloth grills are gone!

Yes, this is true. I remember the old KEF 104ab's the grills were a heavy, fairly thick foam. I almost always had them off.

On the MC's however the grills are a very thin, appearing to be very nicely made cloth.

Experience with my Revel Salon2s was easy in 2 minutes. Grills off. I was really a great surprise how the grills dulled the sound. They went back in the original boxes on day one, never to see daylight since.