Kharma with or without grills: Am I crazy?

If they sound better to you with the grills on then they sound better! A good speaker designer should take the presence of grills into account and it sounds like the designers at Kharma did. Don't feel you need to listen without grills because "everyone recommends it", you're here to please you, not anyone else. So leave those grills on and happy listening!

Joe D'Appolito has stated something to the effect of "There is NO perfect grill. They are there strictly for cosmetics and protection". The reason that he said such things is that most every speaker known to man ( and woman ) will show greater irregularities in frequency response with the grill on than if measured with the grill off. Most of this is due to diffraction but there are other reasons that could come into play.

Having said that, it is quite possible that you simply prefer the sound of the speaker with the grill's on. There is nothing wrong with this. I've heard speakers that i like better with the grill's on too, but that is another story. The bottom line is that so long as YOU enjoy the system, that is all that counts. Sean
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I always listen to my PSB speakers with grill cloth removed, and replace each night when done listening so it really is a dust cover for me. When in place it very slightly reduces treble extension.

This can also be varied by speaker toe-in amount, straight ahead less treble, direct pointing at listener full treble respeonse.

So use toe-in and grill on/off to tailor sound to your own personal preferences (some homes with small children/pets may keep grills on for safety purposes to protect speakers)

Some Paradigm models use the grills as an "active" component of the speaker, and they specifically recommend using the speakers with the grilles on. The idea is that sound will diffuse better, thus widening the soundstage, "hiding" the source of the sound, etc. I've seen this at work with Paradigms, it's true; probably other brands use similar techniques.