Grill Cloth Subwoofer Cover

I think you should try putting the subwoofer cover and the silk fern on your girlfriend. Bet your sub will sound better.

If you had my sub the fern would fall off on it's own. I think the fact that she didn't blindly cover the amp and actually purchased materials from an actual audio source, I'd say she did very well. I doubt the difference in sound is as much a reality as a placebo. I'd bet you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference in a blind test. She's either worth it or she's not...

Count your blessings. Most guys will tell you that their woman just put her foot down and insisted you change something. Instead your girl chose to fix the "problem" herself making changes she needed in a way that costs you nothing in terms of performance. Thank her and cherish her. She sounds like a real keeper.

The problem is the fern. Ferns are a shade plant and as a result, you will end up with a darker sound. I would definately go with a daisy, it should give you a more lively, open sound, not bright but maybe a little bit warm. I think a sunflower may result in too bright of a sound, so I would avoid them. Lillies are typically too stodgy or formal sounding and will drain the sub of its life - but they work great at funerals.

Ckoffend,
Excellent advice. With the daisy, if he ever decided to add more subs, he could daisy chain them together. I've heard some people put marijuana plants in the room. I guess it makes the highs better.

Possibly the weight of the fern has an effect on the subwoofer cabinet changing its resonant frequency. If you have a forward firing subwoofer and the added material is hanging over the driver there is potential for a dampening affect.

'Ckoffend', I may laugh here, but you do have a point. Research suggests that significant interprocessing goes on in the brain between sensory modalities, especially the visual and the auditory. Center dialog with properly set up A/V systems tends to be subjectively attached to the visual subject by such intracranial processing; just closing the eyes can noticeably change the sound for many people.

B&W many years ago compared different loudspeaker finish colors on how this variable affected the subjects' perception of the sound reproduction. The differences were significant, and the results followed along the lines you might predict. I, for one, always try to design an audio set-up for it's effective visual support, in psychological terms, of the musical illusion I'm seeking to achieve. I don't like fancy and distracting wood finishes on the face of loudspeakers for this reason, whatever the girlfriend acceptance factor.