OMG, just removed my speaker grills and the sound just opened up to a new level!

Hello, what planet are you from? You mean you didn’t know removing the grill off ANY speaker improves it’s transparency and openness? These are the basics, what level in this hobby are you at?  Sorry if this sounds a little rude, no offend but I can not believe that you are actually surprised with this basic knowledge. 

I am chill, as I said ,this is basic knowledge with audiophiles.  Just because a speaker is voiced with the grills on means absolutely nothing to you or me.  That means absolutely nothing. I know a ton of speakers that are all meant to always be played with the grills on. But by tweaking a system properly, the sound will ALWAYS sound more open and transparent with the grills off.  I personally wouldn’t bother with placement of on and off with the grills as this may eventually damages the connectors that hold the grills in place. A little bit of dust on the drivers will not damage them and a slight dusting does fix that concern. Straight to the point- you want the best sound from your system?  Tweak it well, leave the grills off.  The ground you have yet to step on my friend, I have walked long time ago. 

Guys, the grills, no matter what material they are made of, will affect the sound. Most of us are in this hobby because we are looking for the purest, most musically satisfying sound we can achieve. Otherwise, we would had stood with receivers and average Components. We spend and spent a lot of money in this hobby. If one has to use their grills to tame brightness or shrill sound, that means the setup is not tweaked correctly. Grills when used always veils the sound SLIGHTLY and when not used, opens up and give a clearer picture into the recording. Removing the grills doesn’t give more resolution or things like that, it just lifts a slight veil that is between you and the music. Transparency, clarity and openness of sound, focus is what’s immediately noticed. 

When you use the grills as a tone control to soften or tame high frequencies,that is something I did long time ago and it does work slightly but you are robbing yourself from better performance by having the grills on. Years ago, audiophiles didn’t have the amount of recent tweaks we have today. Many audiophiles, years ago, were restricted to tube rolling and component swapping to get that “correct sound”.  Today, we now know certainly that cables, isolation point, tubes, room treatment, etc. make a significant difference. So one should tweak the hell out of the system with all the many tweaks we have available to get the tonality and clarity right without having to use the grills as a “tone control”.  I really believe so strong in removing them from my own experience and the performance I have achieved from my systems. The only good reason I could see keeping them on would be that the speakers/drivers look very bad when the grills are removed or dealing with children and pets at home.  But if you can live with them off, the sound is much more involving.