Speaker mesh on La Saclas???

[mustang guy]

Since my la Scalas are in a shop environment, it has been my concern that grindings (eg. from steel) might contaminate the speakers. My answer is to put speaker fabric over the front and the back (crossover area) to protect them. Will this degrade the sound? Here is a picture of some speakers I found on Ebay that are fabric covered on the front. They are removable and made with Newfoam DF-6000. My first question is would this stuff keep metal grindings out, and 2 would it hurt the sound?

Thanks

[Guest " "]

it won't hurt the sound at .

In my wood shop, I have a fabric cover over my speakers....the cover really shows how dusty the environment really is.

[mustang guy]

Thanks Fritz. I am gonna order some right now if they have online ordering.

[pauln]

You are planning to be "GRINDING STEEL" in your shop... how loud is that?

I'm not a steel gringer, but I'm imagining that it makes enough noise to require hearing protection - for your ears, as well as the speakers.

Glad you are thinking about it and looking out for your La Scalas... just had to ask.

[garyrc]

• Some people claim that grille cloth will attenuate the highest frequencies. Put on a piece of music with a lot of high frequencies, cymbal shimmer, etc, and have someone pass the cloth alternately in front of, and not in front of, the tweeter and midrange, while you listen.... then you pass it back and forth while they listen. If there is no difference, there is no difference.
• Contact ACOUSTONE (info@acoustonegrillecloth.com) and explain your situation. SOME of their stuff (e.g., FR 7003) is supposed to be fairly acoustically transparent, but my favorite stereo dealer pointed out that "acoustically transparent" is like "clean coal." Acoustone will send you samples.
• If need be, use some treble EQ, if youve got it.
• In your environment, I'd use some kind of a cloth cover no matter what. Eventually, you will see the outline and interior area of the mid horn and the tweeter embossed on the grille cloth due to magnetic attraction of ordinary dust (containing a little iron), let alone your shavings. My favorite grille cloth (to look at) was on an old bass reflex cabinet over the counter at Shakespeare and Company (used to be "Rambam" named after Rabbi Moses ben Mamon -- Maimonidies) in Berkeley. It started out yellow in the '50s, then the area directly in front of the speaker went to brown in the '60s, near black in the '80s. Eventually the cloth became torn in that weakened area, but that was cool, it flapped in the speaker breeze.

[pzannucci]

Grill cloth can cut the high frequency response and articulation slightly. Some would say that is good with the La Scala. Considering this is a shop environment and you probably aren't doing the critical "don't move from chair in the sweet spot", you probably won't notice the change. Better to protect the speakers since steel fragments will be very attracted to the magnets in the exposed horns.

[garyrc]

I agree that some would say tha a little attenuation of treble might be good with the La Scala, but not upper treble, where the La Scala rolls off a bit anyway (above 10K) ... it is the lower treble that might stand some cutting. Stereophile commented that the new and great La Scala II is a bit "reticent in the highs," compared to their reference speakers. Unfortunately, it is the upper treble that is most likely to be cut by grille cloth (if that particular cloth cuts at all). If ordinary EQ or something like Audyssey Flat is used, I'd predict that, with a good thin grille, the EQ called for would be a slight dip from 1K to 7K or so, and a slight progressively increasing boost from about 9K to 16K, maxing out at about + 4 dB at 16K. In a huge room like this shop, too much treble boost could put the tweeters in danger if the music is played very loudly.

[mustang guy]

I think the protection of the speakers outweighs the disadvantages. I will be very carefull to not over EQ the highs which would endanger the tweets.

Thank you all for the great advice!

[mustang guy]

Got two of the speakers done, and I can't tell the difference. At my age, many of the high notes are above my 100% audibility threshold anyway. Perhaps a child could hear a difference, but this is a MAN cave, not a kid cave.