Why do fine monitors have no grille over the woofers/tweeters?

[rasputin1963]

Good studio monitors have no grille--- whether cloth or metallic--- over the woofers and tweeters. I guess this allows you to hear sound unobstructed by anything at all, right?

 

 

Why, in traditional playback systems (for entertainment purposes) do they have a tweed grille or metallic perforated grille in front of them, if it distorts/obstructs the pure vibrations of your cones? Were they thought to be unsightly when exposed?

 

 

ras

[dboomer]

Diffraction! Sound passing through the little slits bends and causes minute destructions.

[WRGKMC]

You wouldn't want to put a blanket over the sound. Monitors are for reference purposes and highly directional. Any materials are going to mask and alter the speakers output. Its unlikely someone whose using them for mixing/mastering is going to get careless and punch holes in the speakers (especially with what they shelled out to buy them) Its unlikely people would allow young children to be batting sharp objects around in a studio full of gear either. Hi Fi and stereo gear usually have some kind of cover to prevent accidents. Allot of your higher end audiophile gear has no covers.

 

Musical instrument amps get moved around and are prone to accidents. Musical gear is generally much lower fidelity and frequency specific. They aren't used to produce full frequency responses like Hi Fi or studio monitors. Grill cloth and metal screens have little effect on bass/mids and the protection outweighs any loss of response. Horns can do a good job blasting through grill cloth, but most PA horns are open. The looks are another consideration. You want the boxes to look good but not distract the eyes from the performers. This is why so much gear is "painted black"

[Phil O'Keefe]

Speakers designed for live use have to make concessions to things like road-worthiness and durability. The fact they get moved around a lot, and are exposed to a more rambunctious environment while in use than the typical studio speakers means they need protection. Does that compromise the sound? It can a bit... but not enough to warrant the vastly increased risk of damage that would come along with leaving those drivers exposed.

 

In the studio things tend to stay put most of the time, and there aren't the same demands in terms of durability and road-worthiness. The design emphasis tends to be on the best sound quality possible, as opposed to good sound quality plus ruggedness. As a designer and manufacturer, why deal with solving potential diffraction issues and things that might color the sound passing through a grille if you don't have to?

 

In the past, many studio monitors included detachable grille frames with "transparent" grille cloths, but most owners tended to take them off and toss them, or threw them into a closet and never used them. Since they didn't, I guess manufacturers figured they could save a few bucks by just not equipping their products with them anymore... and since studio owners / nearfield speaker buyers aren't clamoring for their grilles back, it's become more common than not to see studio speakers that don't include them.

[UstadKhanAli]

It's so they cake with dust and fail sooner, forcing you to purchase expensive components to keep them in business longer.

 

Sorry, just kidding....totally made that up. And yeah, I took my cloth enclosures off my monitors as well for the reasons mentioned above.

[Vito Corleone]

Since they didn't' date=' I guess manufacturers figured they could save a few bucks by just not equipping their products with them anymore...[/quote']

 

And now it's just become the "look of REAL studio gear". My guess is they actually sell better/at a higher price WITHOUT a grille.

 

My little Yamaha HS-50M studio monitors not only come without a grille, but the inside of the woofer is white while everything else on the monitor is black. They are just a consumer-grade speaker, but they sure LOOK 'pro'!

 

 

[blue2blue]

It's so they cake with dust and fail sooner, forcing you to purchase expensive components to keep them in business longer.

 

Sorry, just kidding....totally made that up. And yeah, I took my cloth enclosures off my monitors as well for the reasons mentioned above.

 

A can of air can do wonders -- just don't blast it into a delicate ribbon tweeter. Start from a ways back. And double check to make sure it's the can-of-air in your hands and not the contact cleaner -- or WD-40.

 

For the record, I've always used my NS10m's with the grille cloth on. I tried it off, tried it with multiple layers of tissue paper (single and double ply) and decided that the grille sounded best in my enviro to my ear. Also, a little extra protection -- although a potential claw-sharpening 'magnet' for cats. (They're probably less likely to try stretching/claw-sharpening in the cone of an exposed speaker than the familiar fabric surface of the grille cloth but... )

[Phil O'Keefe]

 

My little Yamaha HS-50M studio monitors not only come without a grille, but the inside of the woofer is white while everything else on the monitor is black. They are just a consumer-grade speaker, but they sure LOOK 'pro'!

 

 

The white woofers are the legacy of the Yamaha NS10's, which (let's not forget) were originally intended as consumer bookshelf speakers and not as professional reference / nearfield monitors. If your HS-50M's work for you and meet your needs, that's all that matters.

[Phil O'Keefe]

 

A can of air can do wonders -- just don't blast it into a delicate ribbon tweeter. Start from a ways back. And double check to make sure it's the can-of-air in your hands and not the contact cleaner -- or WD-40.

 

Man that would really suck!

 

For the record, I've always used my NS10m's with the grille cloth on. I tried it off, tried it with multiple layers of tissue paper (single and double ply) and decided that the grille sounded best in my enviro to my ear. Also, a little extra protection -- although a potential claw-sharpening 'magnet' for cats. (They're probably less likely to try stretching/claw-sharpening in the cone of an exposed speaker than the familiar fabric surface of the grille cloth but... )

 

Did you ever see the testing and writeup Bob Hodas did on the whole tissue paper phenomena? It's absolutely essential reading for all NS10 owners IMO.

 

http://www.bobhodas.com/examining-the-yamaha-ns-10m.php

[Vito Corleone]

 

The white woofers are the legacy of the Yamaha NS10's, which (let's not forget) were originally intended as consumer bookshelf speakers and not as professional reference / nearfield monitors. If your HS-50M's work for you and meet your needs, that's all that matters.

 

Not a fan, I take it?

[Phil O'Keefe]

 

Not a fan, I take it?

 

I've certainly spent my share of hours sitting in front of a pair of NS10s, but no, I was never really what you'd call a fan of them. I learned to gauge the low end (

[AlamoJoe]

All's I know is that two days after I'd purchased my NS10's, I dropped a cup of coffee and it splashed all over the cone on one of them. Didn't seem to affect the sound any...But the stain remains.....

 

 

[Vito Corleone]

 

I've certainly spent my share of hours sitting in front of a pair of NS10s, but no, I was never really what you'd call a fan of them. I learned to gauge the low end (< ~100Hz) by watching the woofer excursion (you really can't hear what's going on down there on them) and to ignore the icepick to the eardrums sensation you get after listening to them for a few hours, and while the mixes I did with them usually translated okay, I never found them at all enjoyable to use - in fact, "fatiguing" would be one of the main words I'd use to describe them.

 

I'm far from a pro engineer, but I find that tend to mix vocals too hot with the HS50Ms in my little home studio setup. Not sure if that's a fault of the speaker or something else.

 

 

 

[blue2blue]

 

Man that would really suck!

 

 

 

Did you ever see the testing and writeup Bob Hodas did on the whole tissue paper phenomena? It's absolutely essential reading for all NS10 owners IMO.

 

http://www.bobhodas.com/examining-the-yamaha-ns-10m.php

 

Love that article -- and this time I've got it bookmarked. Thanks!

 

 

Would be fun to see some audiophile poets doing a focus group on such a listening test: "With three layers, I felt a distinct shift of the aural landscape to a cotton field, just before the cotton bolls get rotten..."

[Phil O'Keefe]

 

I'm far from a pro engineer, but I find that tend to mix vocals too hot with the HS50Ms in my little home studio setup. Not sure if that's a fault of the speaker or something else.

 

 

 

Vocals live in the midrange, It's possible your speakers might be a bit dipped in the mids and you're pushing the vocals to compensate - I really am not familiar enough with the model to say either way. Maybe the speakers are fine and it's a room issue, or maybe it's because you're trying to push too many things into the mids at once and the vocals are getting masked and you're pushing them up really hot to try to compensate. And some people just like to mix vocals a bit forward. I have no idea which is the case in your situation.

 

Try this next time - do the mix like you normally would, and then (assuming you're using automation) print a couple more passes with the vocals trimmed down -1dB and then -3 dB. Print all three versions and live with them for a while. Play all the versions on a variety of systems. You'll soon know which one's the winner... or if you need to go back and do some more adjustments - maybe the first pass will be best on the verses, but the -1dB version might be better on the chorus, or whatever. Once you have it dialed in for the whole song and you're happy (or at least satisfied) with it on a bunch of different systems, then play that version of the mix back repeatedly on your Yamahas so you can get familiar with what the level you're shooting for sounds like on them.

 

Repeat the process with subsequent recordings. Once you get used to hearing them at the "right" level a lot, you should find it a bit easier to sit the vocals where you want them in the mix. Of course, if you have any favorite reference recordings, you can always refer to them for a reality check as you're working on your mixes.

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

 

Love that article -- and this time I've got it bookmarked. Thanks!

 

Glad to help. It really is a classic, isn't it?

 

Would be fun to see some audiophile poets doing a focus group on such a listening test: "With three layers, I felt a distinct shift of the aural landscape to a cotton field, just before the cotton bolls get rotten..."

 

[Beck]

Other than reasons already mentioned I think there is also an aesthetic element to the trends of cover or not to cover. As for the end-listener environment of home hi-fi in the beginning the components, including speakers looked more like furniture. Remembering back to the 70's to me a speaker where the speakers were exposed looked broken, like the owner lost the screws to the grill or something.

 

Same in many studios back in the day. I remember when the big JBL studio monitors and others all had cloth covers, and some later ones like the Control 5 had metal grills. At some point exposed speakers became the new professional look as studios stared looking less cozy and more utilitarian, losing the wood grain look, and the grills and covers. As speaker makers started pitching more and more the superior and unique designs they had vs the competition they also started building speakers so we could see those puppies in action!