Anyone Using Harbeths with Grilles off?

grilles off on c7e3s especially and now shl5+.  
went back and forth many many times but the grilles do not stay on very long.  they do sound a little bit brighter but in a good way but the dynamics are significantly improved.  

grilles on

not that it matters too much to owners, but alan shaw says they are designed to be used with grilles on

alan shaw also says all amps sound the same :)

Alan Shaw says grills on give a flatter response.  Sometimes you don't want a flatter response.  But the difference is admittedly subtle.  I prefer Grills off for listening, but grills on for background music while I work. 

i find that with the grilles on they sometimes have some weird / subtle sounding interactions that sound like comb filtering.  
grilles off the sound is smoother and cleaner.  

Just an observation, but when I worked in a stereo store (many, many years ago), I noticed that the vast majority of customers could never resist the urge to turn up the treble and bass controls. This was true regardless of how bright or bassy the system was with all of the controls left neutral.

While tone controls are a thing of the past on much equipment these days, this same trend plays out in its own way these days. People love to tweak things by using different cables, or removing grills.

Harbeth is one of the most tonally neutral speakers out there when it come to reproducing unamplified acoustic music, but it doesn't surprise me when many ignore the designer's advice and remove the grills. They are just turning up the treble control a notch.