What purpose do speaker grilles serve?

[red_ryder 0]

I've often wondered, what is the use of speaker grilles? Does the fabric make the speakers sound better? Is it simply to keep dust from the drivers? I ask this because I feel that speakers look much nicer with the grille taken off. You see pictures in magazines and websites and usually the grilles are removed too.

 

 

[Rameish 0]

They are supposed to make the speaker look nicer (YMMV) and sorta give some protection to the drivers, and do alter the sound (esp high frequencies). Some speakers have the provision for the grill to be removed from the front and placed over the back (thereby covinging the rear port) like my former Primare L30. On these speaker types it provides a little less bass. Others choose to provide foam/sponge bungs for the port (Tannoy R series).

 

Frankly I never liked what grills do as I often feel they do more harm than good by adding unnecessary vibration. If I were you I will audition a speaker with the grills off and use it that way.

 

The changes to the sound are subtle yet noticable with and without the grills. If you find a speaker too bright you might wanna leave the grill on but make sure they dont vibrate by using blue tak or some other material to hold it in place and not vibrate all over the place.

[Mackie 0]

Most if not all speaker makers claim their grilles are acousticall transparent but most people are able to discern a difference when the grilles are in place and off. The grilles are there mainly for protection of the drivers and also to improve aesthetics. Since I use studio monitors for my home system, U'll be interested to know they don't come with grilles.........at least not Dynaudio Acoustics speakers.

[Charismatic 0]

I've often wondered, what is the use of speaker grilles? Does the fabric make the speakers sound better? Is it simply to keep dust from the drivers? I ask this because I feel that speakers look much nicer with the grille taken off. You see pictures in magazines and websites and usually the grilles are removed too.

When u listen music, take them off. When u finish, put them back. To me, this is how they are used for.

[yongchris 0]

Since I use studio monitors for my home system, U'll be interested to know they don't come with grilles.........at least not Dynaudio Acoustics speakers.

I buy those floorwipe stuff that attracts dust and clean my speakers everyday. Even though my speakers are on abt 12hrs a day, I find that dust(I live right next to a main road) does collect on the woofer's cone and on top, a quick wipe everyday when I get home from work sorts everything. The tweeters on the other hand, are a different matter, I find that it sometimes picks up hair from my cat, so I got one of those camera lens air-blower thingies to gently blow the particles away. sometimes I do wish I had grills.

 

[Mackie 0]

yongchris: There's a way to keep off dust from your drivers and especially the tweeters, buy one of those multi-colored cloth for polishing mirrors at any provision shop. Select the rectangular instead of uniformed sizes. Drape them over your speakers.

Edited August 11, 2004 by Mackie

[cmk 0]

Strictly cosmetic and a waste of money. I leave them off.

[har28 0]

if u study physics u'll noe tat those speaker grills are used for diffraction of sound waves...

its only used generally for high frequency sounds where sound waves have lower wavelength since diffraction only occurs if incident wavelength approx to slit opening (the grills)...

poorly designed tweeters without the grills will result in non-uniform sound throughout the room...

if the grills are only for design then somebody in the past would be creative enough to use something else other than grills to decorate their speakers rite...

[nakedtoes 0]

yongchris: There's a way to keep off dust from your drivers and especially the tweeters, buy one of those multi-colored cloth for polishing mirrors at any provision shop. Select the rectangular instead of uniformed sizes. Drape them over your speakers.

use the cloth and wrap around the speaker?? look ugly

[Mackie 0]

yongchris:  There's a way to keep off dust from your drivers and especially the tweeters, buy one of those multi-colored cloth for polishing mirrors at any provision shop.  Select the rectangular instead of uniformed sizes.  Drape them over your speakers.

use the cloth and wrap around the speaker?? look ugly

har28: U are right about the physics and the theoretical function of speakers grilles but sadly, I've yet to hear a pair that sounds better with the grilles on. I reckon where allocation of cost is concerned, grilles are way down in the priority list. Moreover, proper speakers positioning and room treatment will attain sound uniformity over a wide or specific area of choice.

 

nakedtoes: I thought I said DRAPE. Dr. Dict will tell U it's a big difference from the word WRAP. Anyhow, one can always remove the drapes if he wishes to show off to visitors. The ability to keep out dirt from speakers without grilles is paramount.

Edited August 12, 2004 by Mackie

[hoho 0]

Just to share an answer from Sennheiser service engineer i got about the grills function

 

QUERY TO SENNHEISER ASIA

 

Some headphones I have seen have some metallic grille on them, does that

mean that sound can come out of them. Does metallic grille produce better

sound as some headphones claim?

 

REPLY FROM SENNHEISER SERVICE ENGINEER

 

Closed headphones and opened headphones have different technologies.

For good quality headphones, there is a material in the headphone is very

good sound absorber.

So there is no reverberation in the space from the speaker to the ear.

A good example is our HD25

 

For opened headphones, there is less worry of this factor hence it is

cheaper to build.

The metalic grill you mentioned serve this purpose, to let the sound

escape.

The setback is that you sometimes hear the outside atmosphere if you have

very small volume.

 

The shape of this grill is designed so to reduce this sound to the ear.

 

What do you think about this?

i got some other few queries answered too, if anyone interested, i can also post them.

 

[Mackie 0]

hoho: Before we proceed, let it be known that speaker grills and headphone grilles serve very different functions. The former covers the front of drivers while the latter behind.

[fuwen 0]

My speakers Grand Piano home perform much better (esp high frequency) with the cover off, convincely, to my taste.

 

But I have to keep the cover on, otherwise when my 3-year old son and my 2-year old daughter see the speaker tweeters and drivers they will .....................

[Mackie 0]

Pokey poke!