OMG, just removed my speaker grills and the sound just opened up to a new level!

Hello, what planet are you from? You mean you didn’t know removing the grill off ANY speaker improves it’s transparency and openness? These are the basics, what level in this hobby are you at?  Sorry if this sounds a little rude, no offend but I can not believe that you are actually surprised with this basic knowledge. 

lowtubes, chill, no reason to ride the OP. Everyone is at a different place. Some people are more into the media collecting, etc. and don't pay that much attention to the nuances of gear, etc. 

As for speakers that are "voiced" with grills on, whatever. It's usually because it looks like crap, for they used ugly materials underneath to save money - not always the worst thing cost-wise - but a disadvantage when it comes to performance. Yes, this is true of Vandersteen and Magnepan, too. Sorry, fanboys.  :) 

Do I care if the manufacturer says the speaker is better with a grill? No. I'll probably never own it. It's that important when you put systems together for high performance. I get the aesthetics thing and WAF etc, but I'll not quickly succumb to acceptance of a speaker without removable grill. In 30+ years a speaker with a grill has never performed superior to without.  The only exception, as I said, was if they did a poor job on the tweeter. YMMV 

I am chill, as I said ,this is basic knowledge with audiophiles.  Just because a speaker is voiced with the grills on means absolutely nothing to you or me.  That means absolutely nothing. I know a ton of speakers that are all meant to always be played with the grills on. But by tweaking a system properly, the sound will ALWAYS sound more open and transparent with the grills off.  I personally wouldn’t bother with placement of on and off with the grills as this may eventually damages the connectors that hold the grills in place. A little bit of dust on the drivers will not damage them and a slight dusting does fix that concern. Straight to the point- you want the best sound from your system?  Tweak it well, leave the grills off.  The ground you have yet to step on my friend, I have walked long time ago. 

Focal must be really bad at designing speakers if the grills make that big of a difference.

@audiorusty thats the best comment yet. Ya'll must have some Shi**ty grills if it sounds so much better with them off. I like to drool over the looks of my drivers too but I also like to protect the drivers, keep bugs out of the ports, kids hands out & dust off drivers.