You’ve finally got it right. The toe-in is locked, imaging’s solid, bass is tuned. And yet—something’s holding back. Not unpleasant, just a little less dimensional than expected. The shimmer’s not quite shimmering. You lean forward and, on a hunch, pull off the speaker grilles.
There it is. The snap returns. Voices gain breath. That last veil between you and the recording space—the shimmer, the air—lifts.
What to Do
Take the grilles off when you’re listening critically. Unless your speaker’s designer has explicitly voiced them with the grilles on (and very few have), those panels are doing more than keeping out dust—they’re holding back energy. Store them safely and reinstall when needed for protection or aesthetics. But for listening? Let the drivers speak for themselves.
Put on a familiar track—something with transient detail, a brush cymbal, breathy vocals, or string harmonics that hang in space. If the sense of depth or clarity improves with the grilles off, you’ve found one of those hidden-in-plain-sight differences.
Here’s Why That Works
Most grilles, especially those framed in plastic or wrapped in tight fabric, act as diffraction elements. As the sound radiates from the tweeter, it hits the grille frame, scatters, and arrives at your ear just slightly out of time. You’re not just losing highs—you’re introducing phase confusion and subtle time smear that affects everything from image focus to tonal edge.
That veil you were hearing? It’s real. Not dramatic, but enough. Imaging collapses inward. The sound becomes attached to the boxes again. You’re no longer leaning into the music—you’re just hearing it.
You wouldn’t listen through a pillow. Don’t make your speakers do it.
