Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Grills - Yes or No

Whenever I have seen pictures of different HT setups, many of the speakers are without grills. Do most of you leave your grills off? Is there any reason other than looks?

Some like their speakers naked, that's all.

I leave mine on, but if I was taking pictures (I KNOW. I still need to do that.) I might take some with them off. It shows off the cool factor of the Axiom speaker.

There is no audible difference, so there is no performance factor to worry about. Just looks.

What Nick said.

While they do look very cool off I leave mine on so that even the little light in my room won’t reflect off them while watching movies. Plus I’m a klutz so it’s just a little more protection in case I do something stupid.

On 99% of the time, 1% naked when taking pictures.

I find the placebo effect makes everything sound better when the grills are off. I put the grills on whenever there is a risk that visitors might be sneaky cone pokers or port fondlers.

Oddly enough I never feel any urge to remove the grills on the QS8s. Then again QS8s have 4 grills per speaker so we're not talking immediate gratification there.

I leave mine on for protection. But for me, the verdict is still out about acoustic transparency of the grills.

I think that Alan mentioned at one time your talking about .5dB maybe, pretty insignificant.

I'm not worried about sound attenuation. I'm the guy that only applies a watt per side, remember ?. I'm more concerned about diffraction and hence poorer imaging. The imaging is great as it is. I'm just wondering if it could be better with the grills off.

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I find the placebo effect makes everything sound better when the grills are off.

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Ah... if only more "audiophiles" would be more open to this powerful effect as it applies to much more than grills...

Never listened nore felt the reason to even try without the grils. Peronally I never got why people do pic's without them. They clearly look cleaner and more esthetic than with big circle things with no colour or texture consistancey with the rest of the speaker.

Randy,

I did indeed, and it's away up at 16 kHz and above, where musically there ain't much happening--a few harmonics of piccolo, violin and brushed cymbals.

But those harmonics are very much lower than the fundamental harmonic content of the same instruments, most of which is below 10 kHz.

Moreover, if you're male and over 25, it's highly unlikely you can hear anything above 15 kHz.

So don't worry about it.

Regards,

Wow, this is crazy, am I the only one here that actually leaves them OFF 100% of the time? I think the EP500 just looks WAY too good to cover up, that goes for the M22s as well (and my soon to arrive M2s will match aesthetically with the M22s and will look better).

I have thought about keeping the grills on, I don't have any kids etc, I love how the speakers look naked.

I prefer the grills off on my speakers not for acoustics but for aesthetics. One exception though is in my HT where the big silver cones can reflect light, so I leave the grills on the EP subs.

Grills ON - 100% of the time.

We have two very vibrant Golden Retrievers with very active tails, so the grills stay on.

I have had them grappling with each other and knock one of my M60's over...Caught it, but not before partially denting one corner...Stupid dogs.

Grills ON!

WhatFurrer

If I take my grills off, our younger son Nathan heads right over and trys to poke in the woofer caps. Make sure you have a vacuum cleaner/attachment to suck them right back out.

On all the time. Just better looking, IMHO.

I'm afraid my vacuum cleaner would just rip out the cones if I tried that...

Ditto-Ditto.

never thought of that sirq

Speakers look the best with the grills off, at least Black Oak.

I'm surprised that so many of you like them on.

At school, I keep them on all the time. Since they are black most people don't even notice they are there, so I guess that is nice.

At home, they are off all the way. Nice and naked. The drivers look so powerful like that. QS4's with the grills of I think look pretty sweet. They have this awesome mechanical look with the black nubs coming out of the top and bottom where the woofers are.

Sorry, but I'll have to raise Marks two Ditto's with a third.

I guess older folks can't handle Axiom's bold and powerful looks. Grills are needed to shield their virgin eyes..

*takes cover*

M60's grill off and vp150 and QS4's on. I find the M60's look better naked whereas the 150 sitting under my tv blends in better with the grill on.

I vary the look from time to time the grill off look gets old after awhile. I then put the grills back on and the black to light maple contrast is striking, then when I get too used to it, off come the grills again, usually about 6 months or so.

With peanut butter and jelly sandwich wielding grandkids running around the house, my grills stay on.

I have never removed the grills when my son is in the room. He will be three in a couple of months and I don't want the curious side of him poking at the speakers!!!!

I can see how you've been fruitful and multiplied if you are as hawt in person as your avatar implies !!!

It's a guy thing...Grills Off! Acoustic tranparency is real, but Alan's right, I'm 57 and pretty sure I can't hear anything above 15kHz.
Grills off unless you have friends over who might think you're a redneck, but then again those folks think I'm a redneck anyway for even having speakers the size of tree stumps.
I have to admit that once in a while I get spooked out by the 9 white eyes starring back at you in a dimmly lit room? I swear they generate their own light.