Tightening loudspeakers screws...

Check with the speakers designer on this. Sometimes they want it loose, sometimes tight, ( you need a torque spec. on that). Jeffsefu...in your post above, when you say "remove front baffles" if you mean grills, I surely disagree. Some companies voice the speakers with the grills in place. All in all....check with the manufacturer.

..regarding Narrod's question. B&W require specific torquing for some of their speakers. The drivers have a foam gasket which if tightened too tight can squash the gasket and nullify the good research that went into the speaker itself. There are many manufacturers that have tightening issues. Check with your builder to see if they recommend tightening...and also, if you tighten the drivers too much, you can warp or strip the attachments. Be careful.