# Speaker covers.



## trickson (Sep 29, 2020)

I'd like to ask you all a question about speaker covers.
One is do they block sound?
Another is can they actually vibrate at high output.
I noticed that the Klipsch I have use magnets to stay on.
My speakers are Copper and look so AMAZING I am finding it hard to want to use them. (LOL) .
Thanks for your input.


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## sneekypeet (Sep 29, 2020)

To me they have always been a dust cover first, and possibly a layer of protection against instant damage to a cone.

I am also a fan of running them open, just know you will have to dust them now.


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## trickson (Sep 29, 2020)

sneekypeet said:


> To me they have always been a dust cover first, and possibly a layer of protection against instant damage to a cone.
> 
> I am also a fan of running them open, just know you will have to dust them now.


Not the way they are used! LOL 
I have to say I love Klipsch they did away with that stupid round cone.
All mine are flat and tapered really quit unique giving a solid sound. Bold strong and yet clean and clear. Amazing for the price. You just can NOT get anything better IMHO. 
Yet to cover them up I often wondered why. Speakers have to move air and to block that air with even the lightest of fabric still takes away from the "True" sound that the speaker can produce. Am I right? 
I mean I know if you have some really ugly speakers yeah cover them up.
I wonder do the designers of the speakers use the same covers when they do there R&D or what?


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## robot zombie (Sep 29, 2020)

I love the look of Klipsch with those copper domes too. I got a pair of RF-82 II's for my mom for Christmas and she always keeps the grilles on, hiding away those gorgeous horns and 8" convex copper domes.

Sound-wise, it's kind of an OCD thing, imo. Lower frequencies are too big to really be hindered by it all unless the enclosures are literally dozens of feet wide, but the higher frequencies will be affected by reflections induced by the grille supports. The actual cloth makes no measurable difference, but the plastic frame will scatter frequencies. Depending on the model, yours probably has a lattice mesh, which will definitely have more of an effect than the type where there are driver-shaped circles cut into the mesh support - big open gaps are far less intrusive. It's the same effect as nulls in a room, or like... how placing bookshelves flat on a desk will lead to bass suckout and boominess from the waves bouncing off of the comparatively large desk. - the reflections bounce off the frame and then reflect off of the baffle. So you've got these late sounds moving along out of phase with the same high-frequency waves that are making it straight through, essentially cancelling some of them out long before they even have a chance to reach you. This is because some of the sound is bouncing off of the inside and right _back_, essentially making it work against itself.

Whether you hear/like the difference is subjective. It's not going to be a major difference unless they really fucked it up. But no doubt it will result in some perceptual loss in the highs and even mids. The lowest frequency affected will come down to the width of the front baffle, as any sound wave wider will not reflect. To give a reference, 2.5k waves are ~5 1/2" across. So if you have a grille/baffle that's say 6" wide, anything from that point and above will partially get cancelled by grille-baffle reflections. At 1khz, you're getting into big-boy stuff before the grille matters at all... the enclosure would need to be over a foot wide. But up at 5khz, a baffle wider than ~3" will bounce.

If you really wanna get picky, the dispersion pattern will change in a way that might negatively effect stereo imaging, make the whole stage more diffuse. In the treble, your spacial cues are getting a bit chopped up. It's the same effect as a bad room, or having nearfields too close to walls. Soundstage and imaging get harder to pick out, because some of that is being lost to those reflections. The difference with grilles is they come right off of the speaker enclosures themselves!

Now... Klipsch generally likes horn-loaded drivers, some of which are fuckin laser beams of fairly aggressive treble. They might actually benefit from that scattering and attenuation effect. It wouldn't be the first time a speaker designer built the grille to compliment the speaker. Though generally the grilles are a compromise on protection... as in, they're designed to sound best without them. And given the wow-factor of Klipsch... yeah, probably sounds better leaving them off.

That all said, it's splitting hairs. Do what you like.


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## trickson (Sep 29, 2020)

robot zombie said:


> I love the look of Klipsch with those copper domes too. I got a pair of RF-82 II's for my mom for Christmas and she always keeps the grilles on, hiding away those gorgeous horns and 8" convex copper domes.
> 
> Sound-wise, it's kind of an OCD thing, imo. Lower frequencies are too big to really be hindered by it all unless the enclosures are literally dozens of feet wide, but the higher frequencies will be affected by reflections induced by the grille supports. The actual cloth makes no measurable difference, but the plastic frame will scatter frequencies. Depending on the model, yours probably has a lattice mesh, which will definitely have more of an effect than the type where there are driver-shaped circles cut into the mesh support - big open gaps are far less intrusive. It's the same effect as nulls in a room, or like... how placing bookshelves flat on a desk will lead to bass suckout and boominess from the waves bouncing off of the comparatively large desk. - the reflections bounce off the frame and then reflect off of the baffle. So you've got these late sounds moving along out of phase with the same high-frequency waves that are making it straight through, essentially cancelling some of them out long before they even have a chance to reach you. This is because some of the sound is bouncing off of the inside and right _back_, essentially making it work against itself.
> 
> ...



Thank you very much.
I have noticed a major change, I have OCD. And when it comes to this system it is GOING to be the best ANYONE in the hood hears!
I need to take a pic of the grills but I think they are totally not needed and they do hinder sound.
OH man the highs the Klipsch have is AMAZING the 400w Sub is more than enough for my 25'x 30' room just blasts you right out! BANG , BANG , BANG!
I agree the Klipsch have a very aggressive tweeter I think this is what makes the Klipsch so Clean ,clear and Crisp. Some thing no other speaker can offer.
I can actually hear the difference when the cover is on, I can tell when a speaker has a cover and when it is not blind folded. (I have done it as an experiment).
I wished you could hear it.
The new Denon is just AMAZING !
I can't even get the thing past 60 on the volume level and there is PLENTY more this system can give and the Klipsch just take it like they are getting paid!
My ears on the other hand can not take it. LOL.
Thank you for clear my though about this up.
I knew that the engineers would design there speakers for show as well as sound not to cover them.
The fact is the cover is nothing more than a "Soft layer of protection" and can take away from high sounds. I like to hear things like a "Bell" in a song I never heard before, It makes me go "WOW" I hears so much now going from cheep made crap to top notch makes a huge difference.
Not to knock any one or take away from there quality but Sony speakers just can NOT cut it.


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## sneekypeet (Sep 29, 2020)

trickson said:


> Not the way they are used! LOL
> I have to say I love Klipsch they did away with that stupid round cone.
> All mine are flat and tapered really quit unique giving a solid sound. Bold strong and yet clean and clear. Amazing for the price. You just can NOT get anything better IMHO.
> Yet to cover them up I often wondered why. Speakers have to move air and to block that air with even the lightest of fabric still takes away from the "True" sound that the speaker can produce. Am I right?
> ...



Just a bit of help there..... the cone is the angled bits. The round bit in the middle is a dust cap/cover


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## trickson (Sep 29, 2020)

sneekypeet said:


> Just a bit of help there..... the cone is the angled bits. The round bit in the middle is a dust cap/cover


Yeah it is that round dust cover. A piece of material to cover the voice coil. I remember poking them as a kid and my DAD whipping the piss out of me for it lol.


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## robot zombie (Sep 29, 2020)

trickson said:


> Thank you very much.
> I have noticed a major change, I have OCD. And when it comes to this system it is GOING to be the best ANYONE in the hood hears!
> I need to take a pic of the grills but I think they are totally not needed and they do hinder sound.
> OH man the highs the Klipsch have is AMAZING the 400w Sub is more than enough for my 25'x 30' room just blasts you right out! BANG , BANG , BANG!
> ...


Haha, when I actually got to sit down with those RP-92's I definitely got the appeal. When I first got them set up, I put on this song and cranked it.








And fuck man, the guitars and drums were so alive and full of energy that it felt like being up close at an arena. I first heard that song 20 years ago and I don't think I ever heard it like that. There's something really special about their horn-loaded tweeters. Really foreward-sounding, but also super-lively. The total opposite of dull. They wanna reach out and grab you by the ears. I'm a believer. They are the best for loud, aggressive music. Always comes back to those horns, which are super-loud and efficient. You could plug em into a Fischer-Price amp and they'd probably still be loud.



> Thank you for clear my though about this up.
> I knew that the engineers would design they speakers for show as well as sound not to cover them.


Mmm, from a design standpoint, using a grille to get the sound you want would be something like trying to paint by splashing paint on the wall and cleaning it off of everything else. If it doesn't sound right, it doesn't need a cover to 'fix' it, the original issue is with the speaker design. It sounds really silly when you put it plainly.

"Bob, this speaker sounds bad - the treble is like an ice pick shower... should I go back and cut some new baffle designs? Or maybe different drivers? Different capacitors in the crossover - or maybe we need to rethink the whole circuit? What should we do?"

"Jim. Listen, fuck that." *Tosses blanket over speaker.*

"Oh, gee, Bob, that really does sound less terrible! And it's just so easy. Ship it!"

Point is, there's no need for a grille to fix those sorts of problems. You can tune it via the crossover, or play around with baffle layouts... mess around with the size/shape/damping of the enclosure. Just so many things that are more favorable for any competent designer. And doing it that way doesn't cause the side-effects a grille does. Occam's razor. You're adding another thing to fix something that only requires changing something that's already there.  And the thing you're adding causes more problems. A grille is the "The treble is bad and we're out of time." or the "I have tried everything." fix. Some exotic stuff makes creative use of covers, but otherwise it's just a nah. They're meant to be as out of the way as possible and that's about it. Most times, anyway.



> The fact is the cover is nothing more than a "Soft layer of protection" and can take away from high sounds. I like to hear things like a "Bell" in a song I never heard before, It makes me go "WOW" I hears so much now going from cheep made crap to top notch makes a huge difference.
> Not to knock any one or take away from there quality but Sony speakers just can NOT cut it.


It's interesting you mention that. That's probably the biggest difference. Take the hit on a ride cymbal. Chances are there's a mic closer to it that's picking up the attack right when it's struck - that loud "ting" sound. And then far above are at least a couple of overheads, meant to pick up the decay following the hit... that lingering, ringing "echo" that trails off. Usually some reverb on top for emphasis. When you have quick phase cancellation happening like that, transients get fucky. The attack is much higher in amplitude than the decay, so when it bounces off, it "eats" the decaying sound that comes after, which IME results in sort of a phantom attack. It gets smeared into the decay, and doesn't stand out like it should. Meanwhile, the actual decay gets chopped and you lose that sense of forward-back depth. It makes those quicker sounds flatter and weaker. No amount of EQ or DSP can really bring that back.


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## delshay (Sep 29, 2020)

Just crank up the bass, that will shake off the dust. Speakers should sound better with the covers off.

As a side note, I'm a big fan of B&W Loudspeakers LTD. A speaker needs to be light but very stiff. Kevlar is one of the best material out there.


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## Frederik S (Sep 29, 2020)

It depends on the fabric, some come very close to being acoustically transparent across the audible frequencies. As mentioned the carrier for the fabric is much more likely to have an influence, if it is not designed properly.

A good rule of thumb for when something will have an influence is if its dimensions approaches 1/4 or 1/2 wave length.


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## trickson (Sep 29, 2020)

Yeah I'm not ever putting this cover back on.
That is the center cover, I think that is doing a lot of sound canceling and the such. 
Just a minefield for the sound to navigate through.
The other ones are just as bad IMHO. 
I bet they could save the consumer some cash if they just stopped including them with the speakers.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Sep 29, 2020)

just leave them off, bot crud


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## trickson (Sep 29, 2020)

Man I wished you could hear these things! 
I got to say Klipsch has spoiled me, Now everything I hear other than my system just sounds like a tin can and that is FACT!


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## Frederik S (Sep 30, 2020)

The covers also protect the drivers, during shipping they are a must. Most high-end speakers also come with dedicated driver covers for protecting the most fragile and or exposed drivers.


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## trickson (Sep 30, 2020)

Frederik S said:


> The covers also protect the drivers, during shipping they are a must. Most high-end speakers also come with dedicated driver covers for protecting the most fragile and or exposed drivers.


Hate to burst your bubble on that ,But they are shipped in a box and that box doesn't contain the cover being on. They are in fact shipped with the covers off and in a separate box. 
I should know after all I unpacked 6 of them myself.


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## animal007uk (Sep 30, 2020)

I always take the covers off my speakers if they can be removed.

Some speakers also look nasty with the covers on lol not all but some


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## trickson (Sep 30, 2020)

animal007uk said:


> I always take the covers off my speakers if they can be removed.
> 
> Some speakers also look nasty with the covers on lol not all but some


Right!


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## Frederik S (Oct 1, 2020)

trickson said:


> Hate to burst your bubble on that ,But they are shipped in a box and that box doesn't contain the cover being on. They are in fact shipped with the covers off and in a separate box.
> I should know after all I unpacked 6 of them myself.


Those Klipsch speakers look to have all drivers recessed so the speaker cover are just for show, unless you have kids that like to take a poke at the membranes!


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