# Speaker Grills Affect Sound Quality... Yay Nay?



## Bradcny (Oct 21, 2010)

I have asked a few different questions of the fine folks who contribute to these forums and I have always gotten very sound advice. (No pun intended there) My newest question has to do with the debate over speaker grills. Many posters to audiophile forums seem pretty confident that they noticeably affect the sound quality. I tend to take that with a grain of salt because a lot of these are the same folks who try to convince you that you should be paying $200 for a Monster HDMI cable and we all know that that is not true. So, temporarily forgetting about what their function is, do speaker grills affect sound in a way that even the most casual listener would notice or is it only something that a golden-eared audiophile would notice? One more thing, I have an Onkyo HT S 9300 THX. I mention that only in case the answer depends on the brand of speakers.


----------



## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

Yes they definately effect the sound, acting somewhat like a muffler. Can you hear the difference? When I was younger I could, not as much these days


----------



## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Acoustically transparent materials do not affect audio characteristics. Properly designed and installed, they _should_ have no effect on sound quality whatsoever.


----------



## thewallfisher (Feb 1, 2011)

" So said:


> The most casual listener will not notice. It really depends on the speaker. If you have high quality speakers I wouldn't worry about it much.
> 
> Now if you are a true audiophile and spent over $10k on your speakers this may be more of a real concern.
> 
> Either way I am sure the manufacturer will be able to give you a definitive answer.


----------



## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

The manufacturer's design the speakers to perform properly with the grilles in place. Any coloring that may occur is accounted for in the design.


----------

