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Would a Fabric Room Divider Interfere with sound?

ok, I want to spruce up my HT and the TV with the center channel laying on it and the speakers on the side may be ok to audiophiles, but it is not much to look at from a room aesthetic point of view.

I have a Toshiba 40” projection TV with an Innersound ribbon (not out yet) center channel lying on top of the TV, a pair of Innersound ISIS sitting to either side.
I was thinking about making some kind of cloth partition thingy to sit in front of this with an opening just for the TV monitor to show through. I figured that I could make a simple frame and stretch some cool fabric across to “cover it all up”. My gut tells me “NO! You’ll screw up the sound of those gorgeous ISIS!” (or is it ISISES? anyway...), but I have no scientific point of view to base that on. Is my gut right? Is there anything else that I could do to “bring it all together” that wouldn’t interfere with the sound?
I’m serious, guys, so please help!
-aj
angela100

Showing 1 response by garfish

garfish
1,840 posts
 
Hi AJ; I'm no expert either, but it seems to me that any cloth in front of the speakers is going to absorb the high frequencies to some extent and likely make the sound/music less dynamic. As I'm sure you know, many audiophiles take the grill cloths off their speakers when listening, and claim better dynamics, more immediacy, and a generally more "live" sound.

Vandersteen recommends leaving the grill covers on their V5s though, and states that the speakers were designed to be used with the hoods on, and that the grill cloth material is "sonically transparent". I have found that to be the case with my V5s. This is maybe a perspective to look at it from.

But if you're bent on doing it, maybe you could look into this "sonic transparency" business. Good Luck, and Cheers. Craig
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