Loudspeaker grills on or off - what's your preference ?

My Royd Apex had glued on grilles. Badly glued on, as they fell off after just a few weeks, so I decided to go with the fashion and leave them off. 20 years later I regretted this when a small child's curiosity got the better of him. 

Depends. Some grills seem to make a negative difference, especially the denser materials, but some don't. ATCs these days come with an open mesh grill that seems to have very little effect, at least on the sound - they can have a deleterious effect on your eyes.

Personally, I keep the grills firmly on my speakers - my two teenaged sons are likely to have a far greater impact on the sound than any grill could ever have!

With my Allaes grills on! Gives more focus and better stereo seperation. It also looks better, the Allaes are no lookers without grill.  

The only time I put the grills on my Focals is when I have visitors with young children.  A full set of pressed in domes on my Guru Juniors courtesy of my niece in the past taught me that this is wise. 

Grills off on my Focal Electras.  I pop the tiny guard on the beryllium tweeters when I'm not listened just to be safe, which is easy as the guard is held in place magnetically.

Grilles off, mostly (PMC23).

As an aside, "grill" seems to be the favoured spelling these days, 4 to 2 so far.

Grills on, mainly to gard against myself.

Frenchnaim posted:

Grilles off, mostly (PMC23).

As an aside, "grill" seems to be the favoured spelling these days, 4 to 2 so far.

IME with 20.23's, taking the grilles off definitely opens up the sound more than when they're left on.

The main potential problem with grilles is not the cloth but the frame. The latter interferes with the dispersion characteristics of drive units.

My Kudos Titans were designed to run 'bare' and have a Nextel coated baffle, which was designed to enhance dispersion characteristics.

John.

On. Because they sound no different  to off. If this was not the case it might be off, Or on. All depends what sounds best if a difference is present.

if grills are causing reflections/interference, then they are crap design and would call into question the competency of the designers. The same could be said for ported loudspeakers but thats another matter...

the metal mesh grills on the ATC SCM11s have the lowest loss of any grill martin has ever measured, he said.

Off.   

off

Always prefer My focal sopra2's with the grills off, I've always been under the impression grills do interfere with sound quality 

SBLs - on

Kudos Super 20s - off 

When I come home from work and collapse in the chair and put an album on to relax - Grilles on.

When the system has warmed up and really got my attention -  Grilles off.

I would like to see the results of a truly scientific 'blind' test. My suspicion is there would be little, if any, preference for 'grilles off'. I personally believe it to be one of life's great urban myths (along with quite a few others in the world of hi-fi!!).

I voiced my speakers to measure flat with its acoustic cloth grills on.  I achieved that to within +/- 1dB(C) from 1300Hz to 16000Hz measured with 1/3 oct white noise.  With grills off there is a very small rise, no more than 1dB, above 8000Hz ,  but they sound more open & finely detailed with grills off & thats the way I use them for serious listening.   They are replaced when not in use and for casual listening for domestic harmony purposes.  

My DBLs, foam "Grilles" on. Although they don't sound different with them off, there's a cosmetic consideration. My Neat Motive 2s, grilles off. Definitely sound better that way.

J.N. posted:

The main potential problem with grilles is not the cloth but the frame. The latter interferes with the dispersion characteristics of drive units.

My Kudos Titans were designed to run 'bare' and have a Nextel coated baffle, which was designed to enhance dispersion characteristics.

John.

Keilidhs and Linn speakers of a similar vintage were designed to be frameless. The grilles (Old school in Valhalla) are transparent-sounding to these ears. 

The issue of protection is not a given. My father managed to stick his elbow into a woofer and knock the voice-coil off true through the grille cloth whilst tickling one of our kids.

Mike-B posted:

I voiced my speakers to measure flat with its acoustic cloth grills on.  I achieved that to within +/- 1dB(C) from 1300Hz to 16000Hz measured with 1/3 oct white noise.  With grills off there is a very small rise, no more than 1dB, above 8000Hz ,  but they sound more open & finely detailed with grills off & thats the way I use them for serious listening.   They are replaced when not in use and for casual listening for domestic harmony purposes.  

are your tweeters flush mounted?

jon honeyball posted:

are your tweeters flush mounted?

Flush,  they are all flush mounted.   If you are looking at the profile picture & wondering, the tweeters have soft felt rings that reduce reflections,  they sharpen up imagery & more so when grills are in place.

Off on Monitor Audio.

On with Ovators S-400

I much prefer the grilles on when I'm not listening 

If a speaker is designed to operate with the grilles in place I would leave them on. Magnetically secured frames can 'buzz' when playing LFO, Front 242 and The Prodigy at a satisfying volume!