I am happily running a pair of B&W 705 (s1) speakers (with a B&W ASW 700 subwoofer to fill out the lower frequencies). While the difference is small, I prefer the SQ with the grilles removed.
I am curious about the grille design – something that I haven’t seen on other speakers. In addition to the usual grill cloth, the grills have a perforated hard plastic section that covers the top 1/3 of the woofer, down to the top of the dust cover. (see photo ). A question for those versed in speaker design: What is the intended purpose of this section?
I designed a screen door closer where one part was a disc of Teflon with many holes drilled in it (it ran up and down the side of the door). I had a favorite query for party guests: why the holes? No one ever got it, understandably, as I had sourced the disc from the Teflon scrap box in the machine shop. Even the machinists couldn’t remember why
But as to you question, to provide a bowing to the cloth to move it away from the cone, for protection. I would keep it off unless you have kids and/or pets, especially cats.
