Am I the only one wiht speaker cozys ?

"  Am I the only one who does this? "

Probably.

"   so I ended up covering them with unused, sound dampening curtains to improve the smoothness and imaging. "

you shouldnt have to cover a speaker in order to make it sound good. 

 maybe a different speaker or equipment or room treatments are needed?

if thats what you think you need to do then ok......