The title pretty much says it all. What are yalls opinions on this, personally i prefer having them off since
- They look much better imo
- I feel like there is a difference in sound
Depends on the speaker, but generally on. They look really nice on my KEF R11.
As an added bonus, they completely remove any stress that exposed drivers cause.
On. I make dust.
Depends on the speaker. Mostly off but a lot of great speakers from the 70s are butt-ugly and others have tacky costing that is impossible to clean. Not to mention the fact that soft cones and domes AR poke magnets
Even bought these specific speakers because they have proper metal grills and not textile ones. reason: 2 dogs sometimes quite 3 dimensional
Mine were designed for the grilles off. Musically and aesthetically.
Like looks of mine on,cant say my hearing is good enough to notice a sound difference, mayybe might measure different.
Off!
i have a wife, albeit sometimes drunk.
On. I don’t want to test the willpower of my cats.
I leave mine off because my cat would use them as a scratching post. Exposed drivers don’t seem to interest her.
Last night, I did catch her trying to chew a rubber grommet that the grille for my REL subwoofer uses for mounting.
My SVS subwoofer has a perforated steel grille which is great for cats and grandkids.
My drivers are too distracting
Off unless I have small kids or pets present. The sound is best when removed.
Off, I genuinely feel it dulls the treble on my speakers, likely only a tiny bit, but enough for it to be noticeable.
Off, because it looks better and more fun to watch the drivers. My dog somehow knows to respect the speakers. He even listens sometimes.
Off for critical listening. On the rest of the time for UV and dust blocking.
Speaker designer rec’d listening w/o them.
Depends on the speaker and the room. If the speaker is near my kid, grille on. If the speaker has an exposed or vulnerable/delicate tweeter, especially if it’s a dome that’s proud of the baffle (hello Dynaudio), grille on. If the tweeter is recessed, has a guard, is horn loaded, or is a straight up horn+compression driver, usually grille off, unless the speaker is too bright-sounding.
Off.