Hey, I leave my grills OFF. I have a poor man`s
sound system. I have
(4) Infinity SM-150`s in the front,
(2) Infinity SM-152`s in the back on top of
(2) Cerwin-Vega AT-15`s, THOSE have the grills ON.
It provides alittle better bass.
Also I have (2) Infinity SM Video speakers on top of
the TV. Sometimes I take the grills off, but most of
the time those grills are on too.
ALL of the Infinity speakers are powered by the
Kenwood M2A power amps, and the Cerwin-Vega`s are
powered by the Yamaha MX-1000 power amp. |
Cat proofing the house, especially when we are talking about audio gear, can be serious stuff. When I think of the things that I have done to protect my systems from my indoor cats ... people just don't believe me (it is now 1AM in the morning and I am getting up to investigate what Archie and Ruby are using for a puck in tonight's hockey game).
In two of my systems, the speakers are either on top of the bookcase or placed on the top shelf inside of the bookcase (6 feet high) to keep them from my two curiousity seekers. Over the years, I have had cats that have chewed through cables (Vino); tore up a woofer (Sylvester); and shredded speaker grills (Maddie).
In the end, the cats are just being cats ... so it's not personal (though there was that Dual 1057 turntable that plummeted to its early demise and no one fess'd up). And at the end of the day, I love my cats more than my audio equipment (it is close though).
To sum up, either leave the grills on/remember to put the grills back on/close off the room (if possible) or accept that your speakers may get caught in the crossfire.
Good luck and regards, Rich |
I generally concur, grills off.
One pair of my loudspeakers, the Coincidents, don't even come with grills. The other, the Frieds(old generation), have grills, but they're stashed away.
Interestingly enough, in auditioning the new Frieds, I initially found them strident to the point where I preferred them with the grills on. That almost never happens to me. |
Depends on the grill, obviously. Some fabric is so light and open that it has no effect. In some cases the speaker system may have been "voiced" with the grill on, so its removal will brighten the sound, perhaps excessively. Subwoofer sound penetrates walls, so a grill cloth should be no problem.
Your cats are badly behaved. You should train them. My only problem with cats, when we had one, was that it would climb up my Magneplanar speakers and sit on the top. Fortunately there was enough clearance between the grill cloth and the diaphram so that no damage was done. I trained the cat. |
The grills of the speakers generally have acoustically transparent fabric which does not change the tonal characteristics of the sound. I owned maggies for six years and I remember I had to take off the cloth for checking the inside of the speker for fixing the wires on the mylar and I did listen to them without the cloth in place. I could not make out the difference. I was a bit surprised since I expected them to sound different. Later I did read bout it in some brochure of Magnepan and sure enough they had mentioned it clearly that they use acoustically transparent fabric.
Paradigm's state in their catalog that the grills should be on when evaluating their speakers (Paradigm Reference Studio 40 v.2).
If the speakers come with a grill which is meant to be easily removed and put back on, you actually have an option there, use it the way you want and what suits your own ears. Wanna play it safe? Go with what the manufacturer says, they are usually right! |
Grilles off sounds best, generally.
cat problem can be cured with a couple of 12-ga. shells of 00-buckshot and an appropriate delivery method. (An over-under preferred for best aesthetics.) LOL
-Ed |
I too have an inside cat that did damage to my speakers, ONLY ONCE!!! I use the Roman Audio Centurions, 8" 2-way floor standing speaker, that she (the cat) saw her reflection in the gloss black finish and pounced at. The end result was that she tore the surround on one of the 8" drivers, I never put the grills on. So, needless to say, she wound up at the vet's office and got declawed, on all fours. When we got her home, having her declawed seemed to really calm her down. I informed my wife that if I caught, or seen, the cat chewing on any of my cables, the cat would suffer a fate similar to what Ed_sawyer described. Since then, we have moved and I now have a room all to myself, no cats allowed!!!!! |
Currently have 4 sets of speakers and do all listening with cloth removed........have no pets or small children in home.
Seems to be obvious that a cloth however sheer between your ear and speaker driver has to have some negative effect on sound transparancy.
Unfortunately some speakers are aesthetically pretty ugly with speaker cloth removed........most however are so sweet you can't stand to hide those drivers from sight. |
Our family has had several cats over the years inside/ outside cats. My mother taught me to use a spay bottle several years ago. Make it in a stream mode so you can squirt from 6 to7 feet away. Filled only w/ water beleive me they will learn quick if you squirt them every time do something you dont want them to do. We have no problems over the years. The kids just got a new cat a year ago, he got trained real quick by Dad`s squirt bottle. As for grill`s on or off. I prefer them off, in my case I have a pair of Mezzo`s and they sound really crapy w/ the grill`s on. (ha ha) David |
Well, the worst has happened! After almost 3 months of leaving the grills off my Tannoy D-700's, I actually watched as one of the cats stared inquiringly at the upper driver for about 30 seconds. How cute, I thought, as it looked a lot like the famous picture of the RCA dog staring into that record player and then....it attacked the moving driver!
The surround is torn, and I will have to pay $220 to have the speaker reconed to bring it back to perfection.
Beware! It ain't worth it!! Put those grills on if you have cats!!! |
JB:
Sorry to hear of your plight. I should have added to my previous post the following ... no matter how many well-intentioned people tell you that you can train a cat or you can use a squirt bottle or blah, blah, blah and they have been successful ... quite frankly, they have just been lucky or they are full of it. I have owned cats for over 20 years, in various multiples (1 to 6) and they ultimately will get into stuff. and it is very much, monkey see ... monkey do with cats, as well. Assuming that you wish to remain a cat owner (which is preferable for me), you either get the cat's front claws removed or move the speakers to where the cats can't get to them or leave your job and spend your time supervising them.
Give them a can of tuna tonight ... Rich |
Kind of a different approach.... some of you may want to get rid of the cats. Fish tanks are cool and no hair or scratching at surrounds or speaker covers.
In all seriousness it probably depends as to how they engineered the speakers (more over whether they took into consideration the speaker grills). Paradigm claims you need to crtically listen to the studio series with grills on.
Hope this helps. |
In a way, it's kinda my fault....believe it or not, the addition of a Nordost Valhalla interconnect cable between the cd player and pre=amp has brought my system 'to life' as my girlfriend says.
Well, the cats think so too and as they pretty much ignored things before, are now suddenly very affected by the music. It's really kinda weird and freaky.
I am training them to keep away from the speakers, and am making progress.
Speaker is to be reconed this week, and you know, it doesn't sound really any different with a piece of scotch tape on it! |
JB:
At least you have identified a second career in audio repair. My dad had a TV repair shop in Brooklyn from the late 1940's until the mid 1980's and I remember him fixing a torn table radio speaker with some rubber cement and tissue paper. Worked fine, once it dried. Hug a cat today.
Be well, Rich |
