Wilson Sophia 2: grills on or off ?

I had Sophia 1's and I listened to them both ways, and to be honest, to my ears there wasn' t much difference, at least in the nearfield. Since I was always paranoid about bumping into my speakers in my small room, I left the grills on. I think they look better this way anyway.

I have WP7 and Sophias and have listened with grills both on and off and could not hear a real difference. I leave my grills on. The grill material is very thin and transparent.

In my system the difference is quite substantial. There is more detail and air with the grills taken off.

Since I don't have a mind of my own I do what "Mikey" does; I listen to my Soph2's w/grills off.

In my system the difference is quite substantial. There is more detail and air with the grills taken off.

That is an unusual observation - the normal effect of edge diffraction is a "claustrophobic" or "cluttered sound" - the sound also becomes more identifiable as coming from each individual speaker rather than imaging somewhere in space between the two speakers....most noticeable on the sound of cymbals which may collapse in soundstage.

However, the very small triangular baffle of the Sophia mid and tweeter means that this issue may not be noticeable at all - you still get edge diffraction but it occurs so close to the primary signal that your ears may not pick it up ( this is why thin speakers and small satellites often do the "disappearing act" so well ). In this case, perhaps the grill itself is introducing an altered form of edge diffraction that you don't like. In any case, it is almost universally accepted that smooth rounded baffle edges are better than sharp edges, which is why it is usually best with the grill on.