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Take the grills off

also in the kids therefore grills camp

in fact i find it annoying when some manufacturers don't offer grills. seems like they should be mandatory? (LS50/Audio Note, I'm looking at you)
 
Neither pair of speakers I'm using downstairs have grills. When speakers have grills - like the Audio Notes upstairs, I use them.
 
Generally keep them on at all times, with a baby now and toddlers in the family, so far none have shown an interest in them which is good!

The SCM10s are designed to work best with the grilles on anyway, with their nice contoured edges for cleaner diffraction. The NS1000Ms are nice and childproof with the driver integrated grilles anyway which is nice for piece of mind!
 
A problem with speakers with veneered baffles is the grille-frame inevitably masks the wood from UV and leaves a really ugly ‘tan line’ which I suspect adversely impacts resale value quite significantly. The lack of this was certainly a factor in my buying the pair of S3/5R I have and is a key reason I don’t use grilles with them. Given most folk these days seem to prefer the grilles off aesthetic I suspect speakers with an obvious ’bikini line’ will be a far, far harder sell than those without. Obviously this doesn’t impact vintage speakers with black baffles etc.

PS It is surprising how much my S3/5R have darkened in the years I’ve owned them, the light gold cherry finish is now a much deeper reddish-orange. They’d have very significant marks by now had I left the grilles on.
 
Measuring the impedance of my Tannoy MG12s, my foam grilles impact the bass resonance peaks. I am using them with the grilles on, but have adjusted the port length to take them into account.
 
Speaker grills can affect the sound frequencies emitted by a speaker. Or at least when I read reviews of speakers in popular hifi mags which compare frequencies with and without grills the sound profile is affected (typically there is a dip in some higher frequencies with the grills on which I guess are absorbed/cancelled by the speaker grills themselves). Whether you can discernibly hear this is a different question but probably worth exploring on/off to find the sound which you prefer. Clearly in some circumstances you need them on for enhanced physical protection or aesthetics anyway.
 
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I think there are three disparate reasons for having grilles on or off. The aesthetic, the safety or the s.q. reasons, as shown upthread. Each makes a case and as Tony and others have said, some speakers (older models?) are designed to perform best with grilles. I think the only speakers I've had where I've kept them on were the Briks, for obvious reasons. Maybe my Leak 2075 'Daleks' in the 70s. Rogers, KEFs, 3 lots of ProAcs and my current PMCs have all had their grilles removed for listening. Obv. I'm in the s.q. group. :)
 
There are a fair number of speakers; vintage Tannoys, Lockwoods, Kans etc where the grilles don’t come off at all. You’d destroy my Lockwoods trying to get the grilles off as they are essentially part of the baffle, the driver is mounted from behind via the back of the cab. Back when I started off with hi-fi exposed drivers just weren’t a thing. I’m trying to think where it started. I guess the NS1000 was the start of it in 1974, but it was really an outlier, and even then most people used the grilles. I can’t remember anyone having speakers like that in the ‘70s at all. Even if shops popped the grilles off to show you what you were buying they were back on again for listening.
 
The common view is that grilles off for better sound but that is only true if your only qualification for sound being better is slightly more detail.

Grilles change the dispersal characteristics of the sound, treble in particular, and help give better integration of the drive units. The sound is typically more natural and enjoyable.

There is more to music than detail.
 
It seems a bit subjective, as reviews of my speakers suggested grilles-on might be better (they are pretty lively). I tried many, many, times, but still liked then better off, even to the point that I changed amps to better suit the adjusted treble levels that covers-off has (with these speakers YMMV).

If I stuck with covers on, I may have saved some money, but that's the nature of this quest.
 
Grills on here with my Focal 726's. Originally I used them without as my wife actually preferred the looks. However a new grandchild soon showed me what a toddler magnet they were. Putting the grills on immediately made him lose interest. The grills have stayed on ever since. Not sure I notice any difference in sound.

With my old Castles I initially used them in one room grills on, then felt they sounded better grills off in a different room. Unfortunately they had a grill that didn't fully cover the front baffle so had a very obvious tan line. Over time this faded to be invisible - shows you how much the colour of wood changes over the years.
 
artoly said:
It seems a bit subjective..
Click to expand...
I think it's entirely subjective. My point is that audiophiles view detail, and other hi-fi niceties like imagery, as the goals of the quest. This is a mistake. I've heard so many highly detailed systems that sound nothing like real music.
 
I leave them on in rooms that the dogs or young kids spend time in, but tend to take them off in my main system as that's in my office and doesn't get a lot of visitors.
 
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