Grilles or No Grilles

I started a thread elsewhere re: re-grilling speaker grills. My issue is that, while my current speakers sound better sans-grills, IMO, they are butt-ugly without them (Hyperion 938). So I ended up buying some very acoustically transparent grill cloth from Meniscus Audio and had an auto upholstery shop re-grill them. Win-win.

In general however, all speakers I've owned, including my current ones, sound better without grills.

Interesting thread but let me add a technical explanation.

A grill will reduce somewhat the high frequencies (around 0.1 to 0.5 dB max) - not worth worrying about really.

Another factor is vibration - when playing loud and pumping loads of air it is possible to make some grills vibrate audibly (as can your furniture and many other things in the room) - again probably not worth worrying about.

Thirdly, some speakers have very sharp corners (which cause edge diffraction) and the grills may be specifically designed to fit snugly over the baffle and reduce edge diffraction by making a smooth transition to the speaker sides. In this case it is important to keep the grills on.

Finally, with the grills removed, the tweeters, woofer and reflex port are exposed and it is extremely tempting to touch or poke these; and the grills offer some essential protection even if they can still be penetrated by hard objects.

Yea, I have always been under the assumption that grilles are for protection and aesthetic reasons.

Although, before I ever got into this crazy hobby, I NEVER removed the grilles. lol

I have generally preferred the sound with grilles off, even when the manual suggested keeping them on, and even though I prefer the protection and look of having them on. The metal ones seem to protect the best and sound the worst. There are exceptions, though. As others have said, you gotta listen.

I always prefer grills.